


Strength

by WhatSaidWho



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Caretaking, Coming In Pants, Cunnilingus, Dan Finds Out, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt Chloe Decker, Hurt Lucifer, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I should've made chapters, Lucifer is a good care taker, Lucifer is always horny, Masturbation, Maze is a great wing woman, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Pregnancy, Premature Ejaculation, Slow Burn, Unplanned Pregnancy, Whump, Why Did I Write This?, Wing Kink, sex injury, unedited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:15:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23537500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatSaidWho/pseuds/WhatSaidWho
Summary: I had this odd plot bunny that Lucifer forgets his strength around Chloe and so I wrote the longest, oddest, angsty, fluffy, smuttiest story to fulfill this plot bunny's dreams.--Lucifer and Chloe have sex and Lucifer gets a little carried away and accidentally breaks Chloe.(UNEDITED, FINISHED)
Relationships: Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar
Comments: 22
Kudos: 164





	Strength

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy! So, this is long. Really long. And extremely unedited. If you think I should make a second chapter, let me know. If you're following Cover Me Up, I did not forget about it! I've just had this little prompt stuck in my head so I just got it out of the way. I stayed up for 26 hours straight to write this. I wrote for 25 of those hours. This is 44 full Word pages. Be aware. *UNEDITED*  
> \--  
> So this story is really real. There's mention of rape (but there isn't actually rape) and there are long descriptions of bruising and injuries. If this isn't your thing, you may not want to read this. That said, I don't believe any of it is graphic. (Maybe the smut?)

The first time that Lucifer slept with Chloe was quite unlike anything else he’d ever done. Of course, he’d had sex before, but there was something different about sex with Chloe. In hindsight, he should’ve expected that. Everything was different with Chloe.

She makes him bloody mortal. Why wouldn’t that changes things in the bedroom?

Every kiss is intensified ten-fold and that’s just the kisses. When she runs her hand down his chest and sculpted torso, he finds himself clenching his jaw from the new sensations. Then she wraps her hand around his cock and he about jumps out of his skin. He was quick to assure her she did nothing wrong, but in his haste to reassure her, he never stopped to think about what it meant for himself. So, he bumbled through the foreplay like a blushing virgin, just trying not to end things prematurely and show her a good time. When he went down on her, his confidence came back when he found that his skills were not totally diminished when it was her on the receiving end. He brought her over the edge just once before he was so hard that he was certain he would explode if he didn’t fuck her this instant. When he voiced his opinion on the matter, she was eager to agree and so he lined himself up and thrust in.

That’s when it all went to hell.

When he sheathed himself in her, the feeling was too great, and he didn’t even make it all the way in before he was experiencing what was definitely the best orgasm of his long, long life. Wings made themselves known which he’d found out about later because it was like every one of his senses was turned to eleven and it was blinding and deafening and all he could focus on was her wet heat engulfing him.

In the back of his mind, he could vaguely hear…something. But he paid it no mind in his ecstasy. Oh, how he wished he would’ve. He finally snapped out of it when he heard a shout and it didn’t take long for him to realize it was a shout of pain. He refocused his eyes and looked down on the Detective beneath him and to his utter dismay, he saw tears trailing down her cheeks. He muttered out a “what’s wr— “before he looked down and saw the source of her pain.

In his moment of bliss, he had forgotten his strength and he had a hand holding onto her hip and the other on her thigh. Then when his mind-numbing finish happened, he gripped her to keep her close, but she is human, and her body wasn’t made to handle his strength. There were already nasty bruises forming under his hands and when he saw them, he sprung backwards (and consequently out of her) so fast that his head spun. His mouth worked to get apologies out but no sound was made. He was panicking now. He heard Chloe say something about an ambulance and he walked over to his nightstand where his phone was sitting and dialed 911. When the operator picked up the phone, he gave his address and brief description of the injury before hanging up. He walked over to Chloe who was still crying in pain and he felt the fat tears of his own falling down his face. He didn’t know when the mantra started, but at some point he started whispering “I’m sorry” over and over to her. He wasn’t even sure if she could hear him. The bruises are darkening at an alarming rate and there’s some swelling over her thigh and he slams his eyes shut in a feeble attempt to pretend none of this happened. He quickly pulled his pants on and replaced his wings with empty air before the paramedics arrived, alerting him with a ping from the elevator. They look over the scene quickly and then rush over to the bed and attempt to talk to Chloe.

Lucifer leaves his room under the guise of giving them more space to work, but in reality, he couldn’t stand to see her writhe in pain as they splinted her leg and transferred her to the small stretcher. He followed the paramedics into the elevator and watched as they covered Chloe up with a thin sheet to allow her some privacy and dignity. As they wheeled her out of Lux into the waiting ambulance, Lucifer dialed Dan’s number and hesitated before he hit call. He deserved to know, but Lucifer didn’t want one more person to know what he did, albeit unintentionally. He hit call.

When the line clicked indicating that the call was live, Lucifer exhaled a shaky breath. Dan must have picked up on it because he was talking first.

“Lucifer, what happened?” the detective asked, skipping all pleasantries.

“It’s Chloe. She’s…hurt. We’re in an ambulance. We’re heading to the hospital.” Lucifer realized as he spoke that his voice was weaker and wavering more than it ever has, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care when he watched the paramedics insert an IV into Chloe’s arm with what he can only hope is pain medication.

“What hospital? What happened? Is she going to be okay?” Dan rattles off question after question.

Lucifer grimaces as he responds. “The closest one to Lux, I’m assuming. She suffered an injury to her hip and upper leg. As far as I can tell, it’s not life threatening but I’m no bloody doctor. I called because I know that’s what she would’ve wanted me to do.”

With that, he hung up.

Even with the terrible traffic, it wasn’t much longer after that that the ambulance was pulling up to the emergency room entrance. When the doors opened up, there was a flurry of hospital personnel and Lucifer got out of the way as fast as possible. But he no more than stepped out of the vehicle than he had hands on him. When he whipped around, there were two uniformed police there. One was pulling on Lucifers wrists while the other was speaking to him.

“Sir, you’re under arrest for suspicion of rape.”

The rest of the Miranda’s went by as Lucifer retreated into his own thoughts. By no means was it rape. He would never and has never raped anyone. But the truth? The simple humans would never understand. And he supposed it was better to be given punishment for the wrong misdeed than to go punishment free for the true misdoing. It was for this reason only that he allowed the cops to shackle his wrists and lead him to the back of a cruiser. He watched as the wheeled Chloe into the hospital. She was no longer writhing in pain. Must be good pain meds to overcome the pain caused by the Devil himself.

He rode to the precinct with his head against the cool metal of the window cage. When they pulled up to the precinct, he stepped out of the car and was led by the two cops into a holding cell that was gloriously empty. He let them uncuff him and they shut the door behind him. With all of his acquiescence, one of the cops turned to the other and whispered, “this guy sure doesn’t look like he just raped Decker.” Thanks to his preternatural hearing, he heard it and upon the sound of her name, his red-rimmed eyes bled more tears. Not in a long time has he shed more tears than he has on this day.

The cops turned and left him to himself and wasn’t that the worst torture they could’ve granted him? His inner demons and voices coming out to play with him. Before he knew it, he was lying horizontal on the cold cement floor in nothing but his suit pants that were wrinkled beyond measure and a LAPD t-shirt that they gave him to put on that was a size too small and cutting into the muscles on his arms too tightly, but he welcomed the small pain.

He had no intention on keeping track of the time and so he has no idea how long he was in that cell before someone entered the room again. When he heard the door, he didn’t even look up. He did quiet the small, hiccoughing sobs that were shaking his body.

“Oh, man. If I’ve ever seen anyone need a hug, it’s you, big guy.”

He recognized Miss Lopez’s voice and he heard keys jangle in the lock of the cell before the metal screeched as the cell door opened. He didn’t even react when Ella wrapped her small arms around him. He allowed her to pull his tall frame up off the floor of the cell and it was a testament to the amount of time he spent there when his joints cracked angrily. Ella snapped her fingers in front of him and he focused his bleary vision of her standing in front of him. His eyelids and cheeks were raw from tears and his lips were chapped. He finally tuned in to what Ella was saying.

“— got a call from Dan. Chloe’s awake and alert. She’s not pressing charges. She wants to see you.”

His head whips up to meet Ella’s eyes finally.

Lucifer licks his lips and opens his mouth to speak but he winces from the dryness. Ella shoves a water bottle into his hand and he takes three generous gulps from the bottle before he realizes the mistake he made. He turns to find a bucket or toilet and sees nothing, so he’s forced to empty his stomach in the corner on the ground.

He tenses as he feels a hand on his back and slowly turns around to face Ella after he wipes his mouth off on his sleeve.

“That was majorly grody, man. Thank God I don’t have to clean that up.”

He winces hard at the mention of his father, but Ella makes no mention of it. Everything he’s experienced in the last…well, however long it’s been, has been new to him. He’s never felt like he did with Chloe and then the panic and worry, followed by the tears and physical pain they leftNd lastly the vomiting. Surely this was a strange nightmare he’d wake up from.

He’d realized he’d been staring at Miss Lopez for too long when she broke eye contact awkwardly and strung out a long “soooooo, do you want me to drive you to the hospital or what?”

He stood up and brushed his clothing off with a hand before asking her “am I free to go?”

“Uh, yeah. Like I said, she’s not pressing charges. I mean, I knew you couldn’t have…well, y’know. That’s just not you, Luc. I don’t know exactly what happened, but Chloe swears it was nothing like that. If it was though,” Lucifer watched her gaze turn dark, “know that there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to get at you for hurting her.”

“Threats acknowledged, Miss Lopez. I’ll be going now.” He walked straight out of the cell, the room, and the precinct without looking back.

At first, he just went back to Lux. He felt the panic rising with each floor the elevator passed and when the doors opened up at the penthouse, his vision was narrowing to a worrying degree. Then when he stepped in and saw the small drops of blood on his floor from the marks where his fingernails dig into her skin, his room spun, and his body hit the floor.

* * *

It was nearly an hour before he awoke again. He reached for his phone and realized he never collected his belongings from the precinct. He laid there on his floor for a while before pulling himself together and rolling over to his back before sitting up. It was then he realized he wasn’t alone in his home.

Maze was sitting behind his bar nursing a cup with a light amber liquid in it. She raised one meticulously kept eyebrow at him before downing the rest of the drink in a single swallow.

“You’re awake. Good. Thought Decker finally killed you” she remarked dryly.

At the mention of her name, he felt new tears stinging his eyes. Maze noticed and was surprisingly not apathetic.

“What did you do?” she asked.

“I hurt her” he responded lamely.

Her gaze turned dangerous as she made her way around the bar. “What happened.” It wasn’t a question.

“I…I lost control. She makes me mortal, but she doesn’t take my strength. I-I couldn’t— I’d never felt anything like it. And then,” his voice wavers and gets small, “I hurt her. It was bad, Maze.”

“Will she live? Where is she?”

“She’s at the hospital I think. I don’t know, I haven’t seen— they arrested me. They thought I- I- raped her” he spit out with disgust. “They only let me out because she said she wasn’t going to press charges.”

“Then why are you here and not there?”

He took on a manic look as he looked at the demon. He stood to his full height before he responded. “I will never see her again. Every time I look at her now, it’ll merely serve as a reminder of both what I’ve done and what I will never do again. I have no choice. I must leave.”

“So, you’re just gonna ditch her. Nice move. The classic “maim and run”. Real winner.”

“You really, truly think she’s ever going to want to look at me again after I did what I did? It’s not just for me. I need to run for her too” he rebuts.

Maze scoffs as she turns around back to the elevator. She steps inside and presses the button for her floor before she answers.

“Maybe you should let her tell you what she needs and stop assuming.”

He leans against the couch and runs his hand roughly through his hair, unleashing it from all the product.

He takes a deep, shaky breath before he walks across the penthouse to his bathroom. He changes out of his vomit-stained shirt and dirty pants into a crimson button down and dark washed jeans. Extremely casual by his standards but he didn’t want to think about pocket squares and ties and cuff links right now. He brushed the taste of vomit out of his mouth. He left his hair wild and untamed. Sliding on a pair of black loafers, he summoned the elevator to take him to the parking level of Lux.

On his way to the hospital, he felt more and more anxious with every mile. When he stepped into the building and asked for Chloe’s room number, he no longer felt like he was even in his own body. By the time he made it to her room, he was quite certain he was living in his own hell loop.

He heard the voices of Dan and Chloe before he saw them, and those dreadful tears made a reappearance. Blasted things. He knocked a gentle two taps against the door that was left ajar. He heard Chloe’s soft “come in”, but he found that he couldn’t will his legs to move. Dan repeated her sentiment a little louder and Lucifer finally found the willpower to take a step forward. And then another. And then he was in her hospital room, but he was staring firmly at his own feet.

He could hear Chloe’s surprised, yet concerned voice saying just his name at the same time as he heard the chair that Dan must have been sitting in scrape loudly against the floor. He felt the other man’s fist connect with his jaw and he allowed himself to crumple to the floor for the third time that day.

Chloe yelled “Dan!” but Dan must not have been expecting the Devil to just drop into a ball and begin sobbing quietly because he made no further attempt to accost Lucifer. In fact, the only other sound in the room besides Lucifer’s quiet sobs was Dan’s whispered “oh, shit” and the beeping of the machine hooked up to Chloe. After a tense minute, Chloe asked Dan if she could have the room for just her and Lucifer for a second. Dan protested weakly, but Chloe won out and he left the room quietly and clicked the door shut behind him.

That simple sound broke Lucifer because the silent sobs turned into loud, shaking sobs and mumbled apologies in between labored breaths. He could hear Chloe shushing him, but that was all she could do as he was pushed up against the opposite wall as her and her leg was still splinted.

When Lucifer finally caught his breath and found he had no more tears left to cry, he wrapped himself tight into the fetal position and shook.

Chloe’s heart broke at the sight of him – The Devil – reduced to a pile of wet sobs on the floor. And although now was exactly the wrong time to focus on this, she couldn’t help but silently acknowledge how good he looked.

With her gentle affirmations, he finally calmed down enough to take a deep breath and look at her. The sight ruined him. She was so small in the hospital bed under the thin sheets they call blankets.

Thankfully, her injuries were quite literally under wraps. He looked at her, deep in her eyes, and said in the strongest tone he could conjure, “I’m so sorry.”

She fought back her own tears and she motioned for him to stand up and come closer.

He stood up, but he remained stubbornly planted against the far wall.

“Lucifer, please come over here” she begged.

Almost like a petulant child, he shook his head and still remained planted by the far wall.

She left out a long sigh. “Lucifer, you’re not going to hurt me. It’s okay.”

She could see him fighting off tears when he answered, “how could you say that? I already have, Detective. I- I- I’ve broken you.”

“No, you didn’t. Yeah, you may have gotten a little…rougher than I would have liked,” she watched him flinch as if she had physically hit him and rushed to continue, “but you did not break me, Lucifer. I am okay.” And at his pointed glance at her leg, she added “I will be okay.” But still, he did not move.

Eventually, Dan came back in the room following a doctor in. Dan stayed silent as the doctor explained that her x-rays showed that she had a stable pelvic fracture along the top of her left ilium and a comminuted fracture in her femur. The pelvic fracture would only require pain medication and bed rest, but the femur fracture would require surgery and months of physical therapy. Unfortunately for Lucifer, Chloe didn’t have enough time to ask the doctor to wait until Lucifer could leave the room, so he was witness to all the x-rays and bad news. The doctor followed Chloe’s concerned look over to Lucifer and he rushed to assure the Devil that the surgery would be fairly straightforward, and she would be on the road to recovery in no time. But Lucifer heard none of it. He was paling more and more after each sentence and he was nearing translucent when the doctor finally left the room.

Dan was too focused on Chloe and the physician the entire time to pay any attention to Lucifer and when he finally did, he quickly pulled a chair over to Lucifer and gently forced him to take a seat by pushing a hand down on the taller man’s shoulder. Lucifer looked no better sitting down than he did standing up, but at least the risk of him toppling diminished.

Chloe met Dan’s eyes worryingly. Dan looked at Lucifer and sighed.

“Look, man, I don’t know what happened. Chloe refused to say anything and I was hoping she’d give up the ghost when the pain meds kicked in, but she seems to be even more aware now than she was without them, so all I know is that you called and said she was hurt and then they found—“ Dan’s face grimaced, “well, they found sperm and you were the one with her and you didn’t have your shirt on and then she confirmed it was yours and,” he took a deep breath and clenched his fist open and close a few times. “Listen, I’m not an idiot. I know you two have gotten close. If we’re being honest, I knew it was only a matter of time before you started sleeping together. But if someone doesn’t give me an explanation on how you two went from sleeping together, to my ex-wife’s leg being broken in half and her hip fractured, I’m gonna start drawing some unwelcome conclusions.”

Lucifer stayed uncharacteristically quiet during Dan’s small rant. Only when he knew he was done did Lucifer speak. “Draw your conclusions, Daniel. Better yet, I’ll draw them for you. I did it.” Dan began pacing the small room, and Lucifer’s sorrow turned to ire all too quickly. “Don’t want to believe me? Check her side. I’m positive you’ll find a handprint exactly the size of mine. Her thigh as well.”

“Dude, you’re trying to tell me you did that with your bare hands? No way. You’d have to be Superman or something. The femur is the strongest bone in the body and hers is crushed, dude.”

Chloe quickly intervened. “First, would you both stop talking as if I’m not five feet away from you. Second, Dan, I told you it doesn’t matter how it happened. Third, Lucifer, it is not your fault and I will be fine. Stop trying to punish yourself.” At Lucifer’s attempts to interject, she hushed him. “Finally, does it not matter at all what I want right now?”

Both of the men both shut up quickly and then out of nowhere, they both were on their feet and asking what she needed.

She sighed. “Dan, I need you to see about Trixie. I don’t want her seeing me until after the surgery because the bruises will scare her. Lucifer, I need you to get over here, damnit.” Dan nodded and looked over at Lucifer, waiting for him to acquiesce. But he did not move. Chloe growled his name as a warning, but he simply didn’t budge.

“Anything else, love. Please. I will do anything else you want. I will leave, I will pick up the little urchin, I will pay for you to be transferred to the finest hospital in the country. Please. I don’t want to harm you any more than I already have.”

Dan took the pained silence as his cue to leave and see about Trixie, leaving just Chloe and Lucifer in the room together.

“No.” she responded simply.

“No?” His face scrunches in confusion.

“No. Nothing else. I want one thing. I want you to get your ass over here next to me and hold my hand because I am scared, goddamnit. I am in pain and I’m scared and I want my partner.”

He nodded hesitantly, looking at her while doing so hoping she would change her mind. But she didn’t. And so he found himself lifting one lead foot after another until he was standing stiffly at her bedside.

“Good. Now grab that chair and sit down and hold my hand” she instructed.

He slid the chair closer to the bed and sat down on it but he didn’t make a move after that. She stared at him expectantly and he kept his eyes glued to his hands folded in his lap. Finally, he whimpered and said in such a broken voice that her heart twisted, “please don’t make me. Please. I don’t want to hurt you.”

She closed her eyes, willing away persistent tears. “Lucifer, put your hand on the bed.”

He did. She slowly reached her arm out from underneath the sheets and laid her hand on top of his. “You’re not going to break me.”

“I already did.”

She exhaled softly before asking, “what happened, Lucifer?”

His voice was shaky when he answered, eyes still glued to the floor. “You make me mortal, yes?” She nodded. “Well, I’ve never felt the things I was feeling with you and I suppose it got a bit…out of hand.”

She couldn’t stop the chuckle that bubbles out from her throat. “So, this happened because it just felt that damned good, huh?”

His reciprocating chuckle was much more dry and then his body seemed to sink even further into the chair. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing. I told you I’ll be fine.”

His cheeks turned slightly rosy and he finally met her gaze. “Well, yes, of course I’m sorry about the…” _injuries_ go unsaid, “but I meant the precursor to that. I’ve never— I’m not used to— well, I mean— “

He meant the sex, she realized and the rather premature ejaculation as a result of the sex. She shook her head. “Don’t even think about apologizing for that. One, I came. Two, it was kind of ridiculously hot seeing you come undone like that. Well before the searing pain, that is.” He tried to remove his hand from under hers, but she grabbed onto it tighter. “It’s arousing to know that I’m the only one who can tear you apart like that. I’m actually kinda excited for another opportunity to see you fall apart. Maybe next time I can get down on my kn— “

Lucifer pulled his hand out from under hers and stood up quickly from the chair which teetered dangerously back and forth until it settled remaining upright. His eyes were dangerous, but rather than being unsettling, she found it attractive. Holding up his pointer index, he started. “First, there will be no more “opportunities”. And even if there was, which there will not be, you would never, ever be on your knees in front of me. I forbid it.”

She gaped at him. When she recovered, she motioned between the two of them. “So, we’re…what? We’re done?”

Lucifer stayed silent.

“Lucifer, you have to tell me what you’re thinking.”

He finally deflated and he sat back down on the chair and to her surprise, he put his hand on the bed. He didn’t make a move to hold her hand, but he didn’t remove it when she placed her hand on his either. “I…don’t want that. For us to be “done”, as you say. But I don’t know how we’re supposed to move on from this. I can’t…I can’t sleep with you knowing that I’m going to wreck you. And the sex was the greatest of my entire life. Easily. There is no comparison. I am not a strong-willed man when it comes to temptation. To be with you would be to live a celibate life and I’m just— I don’t think I’m strong enough for that, darling.”

She lets his admission sit for a second before she responds. “Why are you so sure you’d have to remain celibate? Are you not willing to try again?”

He looks at her like she has a second head. “Love, you’re laying immobile in a hospital bed right now as we speak. No sex is worth risking this again. Ever.”

“What if I want it though? Are you asking me to be celibate too? What if I wanted another child? Can I never have another child of my own?” she asks as gently as she can to avoid upsetting him more.

“I’d never ask that. If you insist on staying with me, then we can find you a partner who can help satisfy all your needs. If it’s another child you desire, I’m afraid I couldn’t give you that anyways. We’re not the same species. We’re simply incompatible. If we found you a male partner, you could have his child if you so wished.” His answers are spoken simply, but she can tell there’s pain behind his words. He found out he won the lottery, but now he either has to never spend a cent or watch someone spend it all for him.

The steady drip from her IV has caught up to her and she finds herself trying to fight back the exhaustion that comes with pain medication.

Of course, he notices, and he runs his thumb over the back of her hand so gently she isn’t sure she isn’t just imagining it. He shushes her and the last thing she hears before she succumbs to the weight of fatigue is “I love you.”

As he watches her breath steady, he finds himself drained from a day full of zigzagging emotions and soon enough, he’s unconscious too.

They were both startled awake just a couple hours later by a nurse checking Chloe’s vitals. Chloe and Lucifer’s hands stayed intermingled as they slept and neither person made any move to change that. The nurse quietly made sure everything was looking alright before explaining that due to surgery, Chloe couldn’t have breakfast. Sure enough, a glance out the window confirmed that it was dark in the way that was unique to dawn. That specific nurse left after asking if Lucifer wanted a food order placed (he answered “no”) and not even ten minutes later, a new nurse came in with a new IV bag.

The nurse strung up the new bag and then gave a weary glance at Lucifer before redirecting her gaze to Chloe. “I need to check your bruising. Would you prefer it just be you and I?”

Chloe shook her head vehemently. “No,” she says pointedly, “he stays.”

Lucifer got a sinking feeling in his gut and his heart shook. “Detective, I don’t know tha— “

She cut him off. “No, please stay.”

He checked her eyes for any loophole and saw none, so he resigned himself to a head nod.

The nurse took that as her cue to begin and she shut the door. She started asking Chloe questions as she was removing the blankets and wraps. With each layer removed between Lucifer and the injuries, his breathing got increasingly shallower. Then it was just the gown.

The nurse asked Chloe, “would you like me to shut the curtain for some privacy?”

Chloe once again shook her head. “No, it’s okay. He’s seen everything before.” Her laugh was so light and lovely that Lucifer came back to himself just a moment. Chloe continued, “I suppose I should introduce you too. Lucifer, this is Maddie. She was the nurse who was assigned to me when I arrived. Or so I’m told. I was a bit out of it.” The nurse, Maddie, and Chloe both laughed. “Maddie, this is my boyfriend, Lucifer.”

Maddie reached her hand out to shake Lucifer’s and was unable to tell just how clammy it was thanks to the glove on her hand. “What an interesting name!”

Lucifer nodded glumly. “It is indeed.”

Maddie gently pulled the thin fabric gown up. Like a car wreck, he couldn’t stop himself from looking over. Chloe was bare underneath the gown, which made sense considering she was both naked when she was admitted, and they had run a rape kit. But he couldn’t care less about that. All he could focus on was the angry red, blue, and purple blotches covering her body. Her leg had odd lumps underneath the bruising and her hip had four little crescent moon shaped wounds just deep enough to be more than a scratch. There were sharpie lines around the outside of the bruises, which was explained when Maddie said “the bruises haven’t seemed to have grown, which is good. It has only been around 12 hours though, so if they do grow a little, that’s to be expected.”

Maddie started gently prodding around the perimeter of the bruise at her hip. As she got closer to the middle of it, Chloe started grasping tighter and tighter at Lucifer’s hand. Maddie asked about pain on a scale from 1-10 and Chloe explained that it was a five without any pressure on it but a seven with pressure. These numbers didn’t mean anything to Lucifer other than the common knowledge of 1 is probably no pain and 10 is a lot of pain. Then Maddie said she was going to move to Chloe’s thigh and before Maddie even touched her leg, Chloe’s grip on Lucifer’s hand was lethal.

One glance at Chloe’s face told him all he needed to know. “Must you poke at her like this? She’s clearly in pain. Why do you think it’s acceptable to torture her?” he questioned.

Maddie looked at him in slight shock, as if she wasn’t expecting the man that was sitting there so silently and small to stand up for Chloe. “I’m sorry, sir. I know it’s no fun for her, but we need to examine the injuries to make sure there’s nothing going on under the skin that we can’t see. And while she’s going to get some more x-rays and imaging done, the first day is super important to rule out things like internal bleeding. As long as she can go on,” Maddie looked at Chloe to silently ask if she could in fact go on, in which Chloe nodded, “we need to proceed with this.”

Lucifer nodded as well, more to himself than to anyone else. Then Chloe’s grasp returned to its earlier death grip when Maddie got close to her thigh. Lucifer had a momentary flashback to Chloe in his bed screaming in agony and he had to fight back the bile that was rising up his throat.

Maddie started her probing quite a way away from the marker-lined perimeter of the bruise. She continually asked Chloe is there was any new pain or tingling. As the nurse worked her way closer to the bruise, Chloe’s hand got cold and clammy like his and he decided to turn his palm and interlock their fingers. It was a small movement, but it still got Chloe’s attention. Then Maddie pressed against a particularly painful spot and Chloe’s torso came up off the bed and her hand-held Lucifer’s in a vice grip. Rolling some of his muscles painfully. The detective’s brow was lined with beads of sweat and Maddie quickly removed her hand and gently placed it on Chloe’s shoulder to ease her back down to the bed.

“I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but that is the worst comminuted fracture I’ve ever seen” the nurse says softly. “I know I just put you through the ringer, but what is your pain level with your femur?”

Chloe’s breaths were ragged, so she waited to respond. “Seven without, ten with pressure.”

Maddie nodded and wrote on a paper she had on a clipboard. “Okay, just a couple more things and I’ll leave you two alone for a while.” She moved downwards to the foot of her bed and asked Chloe to wriggle her toes and asked if she could feel it as she slid a pen along the bottom of her foot. Chloe was able to do both of those things which is apparently good. The nurse covers Chloe back up with her gown and then suddenly stops. “Would you like a pair of underwear to wear?” she asks Chloe.

Chloe swallowed and glanced over at Lucifer. Lucifer’s expression gave nothing away and so Chloe nodded.

Maddie nodded as well. “And your catheter? Is that alright? No pain?”

For the first time since this entire intimate visit, Chloe’s face flushed. Her hand inches away from Lucifer’s a bit so that only their fingertips were touching. Lucifer glances down and sure enough, there’s a catheter that he missed. He took the initiative this time to pull her hand back to his.

“No, no pain. It’s fine. Thank you.”

Wordlessly, Maddie finished covering Chloe up with her gown and sheets and leaves Chloe’s room.

Chloe glances over at Lucifer and takes in his appearance. “You look good.”

He laughs humorously.

“You do” she reassures him as if he’s the one battered.

He doesn’t respond. They spend the next couple of hours in relative silence. She turns the television on and he sits there and holds her hand. Eventually a nurse comes in and prepares her for surgery and then they wheel her away and tell him it’ll be about 3 hours until she’s back.

He sits silently for the first hour and a half. Then he paces. Then he’s yelling at his father and he doesn’t care who hears.

It’s been three and a half hours and there’s been no word and so he finds a nurse and he puts on his Devil May Care face and soon enough, she’s telling him that they’re finishing up in the operating theatre right now despite the fact that just five minutes ago she was telling him that she couldn’t tell him anything.

He’s sitting in the room by himself when they wheel her back in. She’s unconscious and she has a dangerous looking cage around her leg but, he can see her chest fall and rise with each breath and so that’s good enough for him. The doctor tells him it may be another thirty minutes before she wakes up and she’ll be quite drowsy and out of it and then the door shuts behind him. Lucifer immediately takes her hand in his as gently as he can. He finds himself categorizing every small detail he can about her. The small freckles that dance across her nose and cheeks. The small dent in her ears. The way her nose flares out just the smallest amount with each exhale. Then he’s watching her eyelids flutter and she’s making small little moans. Signs of consciousness. He looks at his watch and it’s only been 24 minutes. She’s always an overachiever.

He watches as her eyes finally open and as she blinks to erase the fog covering them. He desperately wants to brush that hair out of her face, but he resists. That is, until he can tell it’s obviously bugging her as well and he swipes a finger along her forehead, light as a feather.

She grunts and grimaces and the hand attached to his tightens.

“Chloe, what’s wrong, love?” he asks. She doesn’t reply and so he pushes. “Love, what is it? What’s wrong?”

She manages a one-word response. “Hurts.” His stomach sinks again, and his throat feels too tight. Like he’s not getting enough air. He did this to her. He unbuttons the top button of his shirt. He’s the reason why she’s here. He stands up to reach over her to press the call button. Less than a minute later, Maddie comes into the room.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, concerned.

Chloe opens her mouth, but Lucifer squeezes her hand and she shut it again, allowing him to speak for her.

“She’s in pain.”

Maddie looks at her IV machine and ups the morphine. The reaction is almost immediate. Chloe falls back into unconsciousness. Maddie goes about changing her catheter bag and cleaning the room up a bit. Then she leaves Lucifer to his own thoughts again.

Seeing as he’s without his phone and Chloe’s is at his penthouse, he gave Chloe a once over to see if she’d be okay without him for a while. He felt it was unlikely she’d wake up in the next few minutes, so he heads to the nurses’ station to borrow a phone.

He used the landline, despite the willingness from the nurses to share their phones with him.

He calls Lux first, mostly because it’s one of the few phone numbers he knows that’s relevant. Luckily, Maze picks up with her ever-so-charming “what?”

“Mazikeen.”

“Lucifer! I was wondering what happened to you. Did you kiss and make up with Chloe?” she taunts.

He grunts at her facetious attitude. “I suppose, yes. I need you to run errands for me.”

“No. I’m not your maid” she canters.

“But you are my servant and you will do as I wish. And they’re for the detective anyways.” His voice lifts into his authoritative register that allows no arguments.

“Whatever. Fine. What do you need?”

“I need my phone and the detective’s phone from the penthouse. Call some cleaners over and have the place cleaned. Then run to the Detective’s house and grab necessities – clothes, hygiene, the works. Bring it back to the penthouse and put it away. Then bring a complete outfit – something comfortable – to the hospital by Lux. She’s in room W209. But before you do any of that, I need Daniel’s phone number.” He could hear Maze’s eyes rolling, but he didn’t care. She’d get over it.

Maze rattled off Dan’s number and they hung up without saying any goodbyes. Lucifer was quick to dial Dan’s number and Dan picked up without it hitting the third ring.

His “hello” sounded frantic.

“Yes, hello Daniel. I simply wanted to pass along that Chloe is out of surgery and is okay. You may bring the child by to see her, but she is in and out of consciousness and she has some sort of cage entrapping her leg that may scare the child.”

There was a long pause before Dan replied. “Dude, why didn’t you just text me that? I mean, thanks and we’ll be there soon but when I see the hospital calling, I thought something bad happened.”

Ah, yes. Caller ID. Lucifer ran his hand through his hand out of frustration. “I don’t have my bloody phone, or I would’ve.” And with that, he hung up.

He walked back to Chloe’s room and checked on her before he made use of her en-suite bathroom. After relieving himself, he made note of his appearance in the mirror. His scruff was slightly longer than he kept it but having only been a day, it’s not too bad. His hair was a true disaster. It was all but a small afro with the amount of curl going on. He wet his hands in the sink and tried to tame it, but without a comb and his products, it was fruitless.

Walking back to his chair next to Chloe’s bed, he sat down and flopped his arm next to hers. He reached out and grabbed her hand. He relaxed in the chair and left his head thump quietly against the wall. He fell into the state in-between consciousness and unconsciousness. He heard ever little beep and shuffle of footsteps, but he didn’t really care. Some time goes by and he must have fallen asleep because before he knows it, there is a small amount of weight crawling onto his lap and a hushed voice saying “Monkey, he’s sleeping. Let him be.”

Lucifer blinks open his eyes and sure enough, there’s Chloe’s daughter sitting on his lap looking up at him unabashedly. He looks over at Chloe and finds her still asleep. Then he looks over at Dan and then down at Trixie. He must have fallen into a much deeper sleep than he thought because he couldn’t seem to formulate words.

He surveys the room and finds nothing changed except for a small bag sitting on the table. Maze came through it seems.

“You drool, you know.”

Snapped back into reality by Trixie, Lucifer looks back at her.

“I don’t” he responds indignantly.

“Do too!” she giggles and with that, she attempts to use him as a footstool to get up to her mother. While doing so, she places her foot in an unfortunate spot and since he’s in such close proximity to the detective, he finds himself groaning in pain. His sudden reaction startles Trixie and she loses her balance and lands on Chloe. More specifically, on Chloe’s fractured pelvis. Dan jumps up and grabs Trixie, but it’s too late. Chloe’s face turns pallor and her eyes shoot open before reaching for a bag that hung conveniently to her side and she proceeds to empty what’s left of her stomach contents. Dan ushers a now crying Trixie out of the room, mumbling something about “climbing on mommy” and Lucifer gently pulls the hair away from her face and tucks it behind her ears. When she’s finished, she closes the bag and Lucifer takes it and throws it for her.

“‘M Sorry,” she slurs.

He grabs a tissue from the stand next to her and wipes off her face. When he’s done, he drops the tissue into the trash and gently places his hand along the side of her face. She leans into it and closes her eyes, letting out a sound that’s remarkably similar to a purr. “You owe me no apologies. Now or ever. Do you understand?”

She makes a noncommittal sound as she continues to press into his hand until it’s trapped between her head and her pillow.

“Darling, can you stay awake for me? Your daughter is here. And your ex.”

Her eyes cracked open at the implication of Trixie.

“‘ixie’s ere?” She asked and at his nod, her expression became nervous. She glanced down at her leg and saw the cage to prevent her from moving it. Her chest rose a little too fast and the machine monitoring her heart rate picked up a little bit.

Remembering the first time he saw her in a hospital, he was quick to reassure her. “Darling, it’s okay. You look beautiful. Right now, she’s just a little bit scared because she’s afraid she hurt you. I promise she is not scared of you.” His desperate attempts to calm her down seemed to work because the whine from the machine steadied, her breathing back to normal. “Would you like me to get her for you or would you like the doctors first?”

“Trixie pwease” she asked, her words still slightly slurred from the drugs. He brushed his hand that was trapped under her head through her hair before he took four long strides to the door to open it up and invite her family back in.

Trixie shuffled her feet and peeked around the corner and saw her mother sitting upright in her bed with her arms spread wide. Despite her drowsiness, Chloe’s smile was from ear to ear and Lucifer actually physically stumbled as he was struck with how beautiful she was.

Dan helped Trixie up on Chloe’s right side after Chloe insisted that she would be fine on that side. Trixie has to be careful to avoid kicking the cage on that side, but she wouldn’t bump into the pelvic fracture. Then Dan took a step back to where Lucifer was standing and watched as Chloe and Trixie talked.

Lucifer was struck with an odd emotion watching the two of them. He turned to Dan. “When did you know you wanted a child?” The room got eerily quiet and Dan reeled from the question that came from left field. When he recovered, Dan grabbed ahold of Lucifer’s sleeve and drug him to the hallway and quietly closed the door behind them.

“You have got to learn some timing, dude.”

Lucifer groaned theatrically. “Okay, don’t talk about procreation in front of your offspring. Noted. Now the answer, if you please.”

“Honestly, I didn’t really want kids, but we never really did anything to prevent one and so one day, Chloe said she was pregnant, and I guess that’s when I started wanting one.” He shrugged.

Lucifer hums noncommittally and renters the room. Followed immediately by Dan and then the doctor. The doctor took the time to explain the surgery and how intense the break was. He explained that she’s going to remain in the hospital for the next three days and if everything goes well, she’ll be released then but she’ll need to have visiting physical and occupational therapists and then after about a month, she’ll need to start going out for physical and occupational therapy. She’s out of the field for at least six months, unless something spectacular happens with therapy. Lucifer can tell she’s not pleased with that, but both Dan and he inform her that it’s not a big deal. He’s informed her that her right leg is entirely non-weight bearing and that she should stay off her left leg as much as possible to allow the pelvic fracture to heal. He does make a small note that she shouldn’t attempt any sort of “adult activities” (there were young ears in the room) for about two months. At which point there will be a follow up appointment to assess progress. Lucifer breathes out a traitorous sigh of relief. As mind numbingly amazing as the sex was before it all went to hell, with the doctor’s orders he didn’t think that he’d have to fight with Chloe about it for at least two months.

The doctor left and let the nurse, Maddie, in. Maddie closed the curtain while she cleaned around the surgical incision, leaving Dan, Trixie, and Lucifer to listen to the soft sighs of pain from behind the curtain. Chloe called Lucifer in and he peeked his head in the curtain. She waved at him to come in further and he walked to the head of the bed. She whispered so Dan and Trixie couldn’t hear. “Do you think you could help Maddie get me dressed?” Her face flushed with embarrassment.

“Of course, Love. Perhaps it’s best if we Daniel to help as well? The more people, the less…jostling will occur.”

She seemed hesitant and he waited for her to voice her concern. It took a couple minutes, but eventually she did. “I…don’t know if I want him to see the bruises.”

“I completely understand. There’s no one in the universe who wishes there were no bruises to be seen more than me. I just wish to not cause you any more harm.”

She nodded slowly and Lucifer called for Dan to come in behind the curtain. He walks in and immediately covers his wide eyes when he sees Chloe naked.

“Shit, Chlo. I’m sorry! I didn’t realize— “he rambled.

Chloe flushed more, hating feeling like she’s on display. “Dan, it’s okay. Do you think you could help Maddie and Lucifer get me dressed? I need to have some normal clothes on.”

Dan kept his eyes looking anywhere except Chloe. “Are you sure you want me to? I can try to get another nurse?”

“No,” she said, “I trust you and Lucifer and Maddie. You’ve seen it all already. Please?”

He nodded and cautiously looked over at his ex. He kept his graze innocent, but he couldn’t help but linger on the huge bruise at her hip and then the even worse one at her thigh. Her thigh was adorned by a large scar with zipper stitching and a metal cage to get her from rolling her leg. They can’t cast it until the stitches and swelling from surgery are gone. It’ll be casted right before they leave the hospital in a couple days.

Dan’s expression was just short of horrified when he whispered “Christ, Chloe. What happened?”

Lucifer looked down at his feet and clenched his jaw repeatedly, only looking up again when he felt Chloe grasp his hand.

“It doesn’t matter,” Chloe said. “Now can I please get some clothes on, because it’s freezing in here!”

Maddie chuckled and grabbed the bag from the table. As she was reaching inside in the bag to pull out the first garment, Lucifer was hoping that Maze followed his instructions and packed something comfortable and not Maze-esque. When Maddie pulled out a bra, Chloe shook her head.

“No need. Trying to be comfortable, not sensible.” Chloe explained.

Maddie nodded her agreement and pulled out a shirt next. It was a simple looking long sleeve shirt. It was a vintage green and had cuffed wrists and looked well loved. It had a design on the front, but it was so distressed with age that it’s hard to tell what it said.

Chloe grinned. “That’s my favorite shirt. I’m feeling better already.”

But now came the difficult part. Lucifer sat gingerly at the side of her cot and slowly started lifting her forward. Chloe could help quite a bit with this part. She was mostly using him as a backrest at this point to avoid fatigue. Once they got her to a mostly upright position, Dan took the shirt and opened it up over her head, pulling it down so she was wearing it like a necklace. Then Dan helped Chloe slip her right arm through its sleeve. Then Maddie disconnected her IV temporarily to slip her left arm through and then she rolls the left sleeve up past her elbow to connect the IV again. Luckily the shirt was so old that the elastic in the cuffs did not tourniquet her arm.

Chloe sighs out a gratuitous sigh and Lucifer swings his leg behind her so that when she leans back, she’s leaning against his chest.

Maddie pulls out a pair of underwear from the bag and Dan looks over at Lucifer for approval. Lucifer’s eyes narrow but he gives him a small nod. Dan takes the underwear from Maddie and feeds Chloe’s right foot through the appropriate hole, following suit with the left. It takes some maneuvering to get it up since Chloe can’t lift her right leg at all and her left leg just slightly, but Dan manages to get it up to the cage surrounding the majority of her knee and thigh. Maddie explains that she’s going to lift the cage just slightly and that Dan needs to be as quick and agile s possible. He shouldn’t rustle the cage, but he also needs to do it quickly to keep it from hurting Chloe. Dan nods like he’s been given a case at the precinct and on the count of three, Lucifer lifts Chloe by the upper thighs and leans back, making her as horizontal as he can. Maddie lifts the cage and Chloe turns her head into her own shoulder to muffle the small grunt of pain and Dan focuses on navigating the cage wrapped around the intimidating scar. Their plan goes off without a hitch. Chloe is in a mild amount of pain, but nothing would have made it gone smoother. Finally, Maddie pulls out a pair of dark gray cotton sweatpants with a white drawstring. They utilize the same plan as the underwear and it’s a little trickier due to the amount of fabric, but they were stretchy enough to make it work without too much hassle.

Despite the seeming ease of which they were able to dress Chloe, she was still shaking with pain at the end of it. When Maddie pulled the curtain back, she turned to Trixie who was listening the whole thing unfold from behind the curtain.

“Hi there, sweetheart. You must be Chloe’s baby!” Maddie grinned.

Trixie nodded hesitantly as she looked over her mother to make sure nothing was wrong.

“Well,” Maddie continued, “we got her all dressed up so she’s comfier. But, we have one more thing we need to do. Do you want to help?”

Trixie’s interest peaked. “What is it?”

Maddie smiled as she moved over to the cupboard on the wall, pulling out a pair of bright yellow socks. “We need to put socks on your mother.” Maddie saw Trixie’s interest deflate at being assigned a menial task, but she continued anyways. “See, the socks are really important because they’re color coded.” She opened the cupboard door open further to show Trixie the contents. “There are red socks that mean the patient has a really bad allergy. Orange socks mean that the patient may try to run away. Purple socks are for a special procedure.”

Trixie tilted her head as she considered the yellow socks. “What do the yellow ones mean?”

Maddie walked over to Trixie and handed her to socks. “Yellow means that the patient shouldn’t try to walk on their own because they might fall. That’s why it’s so important. This way the hospital knows how to help your mama better.”

Trixie was smiling now, excited at her chance to help real doctors. She wasted no time in running over and slipping Chloe’s socks on her feet.

Chloe made a show of moaning appreciatively and saying how warm her feet were now.

Soon after that, Maddie left the odd family to themselves. Lucifer remained in his spot behind her while Trixie and Dan spent another hour spending time with Chloe before Dan announced it was time to go get dinner. Trixie complained that she wasn’t hungry, but Dan explained that visiting hours were almost up anyways, and they had to be leaving. They could come back tomorrow. At this point, Trixie threw a royal fit. There were tears and arms were flailing. Nurses looked in the room as they walked past, and Dan was well past annoyed.

“Beatrice Espinoza, that is enough!” he whisper yelled as to not attract any attention.

“Why does Lucifer get to stay? I want to stay with mommy!” she wailed, watery.

Chloe had a pinched look on her face, but she was trying to stay calm. “Monkey, Lucifer is mommy’s boyfriend which means he’s allowed to stay the night with me. It’s just the hospital rules. Plus, wouldn’t you rather be sleeping in that nice big bed of yours rather than some chair?”

Trixie’s crying died down and now she was just sniffling. “B-boyfriend? You’re dating Lucifer?”

Chloe looked back and caught a glimpse of Lucifer’s shocked appearance — whether it was from Trixie’s meltdown or her calling him her boyfriend, she’ll never know — and couldn’t help the smile that crossed her face. “Yeah, is that okay?”

Dan seemed only mildly perturbed at the admission, seeing as he had received way too much information about it earlier.

Trixie’s waterworks turned into a million-watt smiled and she ran over and attempted to hug Lucifer, but she could only reach his leg, so she hugged that instead. Lucifer resisted the urge to shake it like a wet dog.

Trixie looked up at him with her big brown eyes that matched her own and asked, “What about you, Lucifer?”

Lucifer’s brows wrinkled in confusion. “What of me, child?”

“Well, you’re probably really hungry too. Don’t you need dinner?” she prompted.

Chloe looks almost guilty as her daughter’s words sink in. “Lucifer, when did you eat last?”

He shrugged and she lightly jostled him with her elbow. Groaning, he replied. “I suppose not for two days or so. I assure you though, I don’t need sustenance.”

Chloe whipped her head around so fast they almost knocked their heads together. “Two days?!? Lucifer you need to eat!”

Puzzled, Lucifer replies, “I don’t understand. You haven’t eaten in two days?”

Chloe’s sigh echoes in the quiet room. “Yes, but I had to fast for the surgery, and I’ve been on an IV. I’m getting a smoothie for dinner tonight. You’ve just been starving.”

“Yes,” Lucifer says dejectedly, “fine. I’ll eat from the cafeteria tonight. Will that please you two?” he asks looking down at Trixie.

Trixie nods yes, but Chloe tenses. “Y’know, you could go out and get food. You don’t have to stay here just for me.”

“Do you want me to leave, Detective?”

“Of course not, but — “

Anything she was about to say gets cut off when Lucifer replies “then leave, I shall not.”

After Trixie and Dan leave, Chloe melts into Lucifer’s chest and she’s into a good slumber before no time. Before Dan left, he handed Lucifer his phone from the bag Maze brought. Lucifer called down to the cafeteria and ordered a smoothie and a sandwich for dinner to be brought up to Chloe’s room. With some monetary incentive, the food was delivered in less time than expected. He had no interest in waking her up, but she should really eat— or well, drink, before the next round of nurses and so he rouses her as gently as possible. He merely sits up a little and asks her to wake up and though it takes a couple tries, he couldn’t chance trying anything more than that less he injuries her greater.

When she awakes, her stomach growls a loud sound. She’s on no special diet other than no coffee, alcohol, and low salt. So, when he sees her eyeing his sandwich, he hands it over without a second thought. She downs the smoothie and the rather large sandwich in record time and then is back to unconsciousness. Lucifer was of course feeling hunger, but not enough to make it worth removing himself from the closest thing to actual heaven that he’s even known.

The next couple of days pass by without much excitement. They’re awaken every couple of hours by nurses and doctors and therapists. Then visiting hours kick in and Trixie and Dan stop by. Ella stopped by one day as well as Maze and Eve. Amenadiel, Linda, and Charlie stop in, but they leave undetected as Lucifer and Chloe were both snoring softly. The only time Lucifer leaves from behind Chloe is to relieve himself and brush his teeth. And though it’s a bit of a hassle for him to get his lean frame to fit on the bed behind Chloe without knocking into anything, the second he’s settled in, she melts against him and everything is right.

That is, until they check the injuries and Lucifer gets a sharp smack to the face as a reminder of what he had done.

* * *

It’s the end of day three and they decided to keep her for one more night on account of the swelling at the surgical site not going down as quickly as they had hoped. They assured her everything was fine and tomorrow she would be going home for sure. Trixie was disappointed, but ultimately everyone understood. But Chloe was going stir-crazy.

“Lucifer, I know you have to understand. You love personal grooming. I need a shower” she whined.

“I understand, but I’m telling you, it’s simply not possible. You can’t stand and there is no bath here. If you want to get clean, I’m afraid your only option is a sponge bath or wait” he replied softly.

She groaned and threw her head back against his shoulder. “Then I guess I’m getting a sponge bath like an old lady because I am disgusting. I cannot wait one more day.”

He shook his head. “You could never be disgusting. And it’s not your fault that you’re unable to bathe. Please, allow me. At least that way you’ll save some of that bothersome pride of tours.”

She was quiet for a while and he was half-expectations that she dozed off, so when she spoke, it startled him. “Are you sure? I know how you feel with the bruises. And I know I’m not exactly…well, I haven’t been able to maintain certain grooming habits I usually have. And I’m seriously disgusting. This isn’t going to be some sexy sponge bath, if they exist.”

He rolls his thumb over hers as he leans down to kiss her shoulder. “Yes, please let me. I’d like the opportunity to help you. And I can assure you, there is nothing you can do to be anything less than absolutely breathtaking.”

She nods and he peels himself away from her back which in turn forces her to lay down flatter. He approaches the nurse’s station and informs them of what they’ve decided. The nurses originally fought the idea of a non-licensed person administering a sponge bath to someone, seeing as there’s still the cage and IV line and heart rate stickies plastered on her. But, in true Lucifer fashion, they gave in soon enough and gave him the supplies needed. Just a simple bucket, sponge, some approved soap, and a couple of harsh towels.

He returns to her room he finds her tangled up in her shirt. He drops the supplies down on the tabletop and rushes over to help her. He helps her get her arms through her shirt and then over her head and he notices her trying to discretely wipe away tears. His panic starts to rise.

“Darling, what’s wrong? What’s hurting? Shall I call the nurse?” He’s already leaning over her to press the call button, but she stops him before he reaches it.

“No, nothing! Nothing’s wrong. I just, it’s nothing. I’m fine” she huffed, and she looked over shoulder, hiding her face from him.

“Darling, of course something’s wrong. You’re hurt, you’re probably scared and bored and you miss your family. Everything’s wrong and I will apologize until the end of time for that, but I need to know what’s wrong specifically right now. Do you need pain relief? Or a nurse?”

“No,” she sniffed. “No, my pain is fine. I don’t need a nurse.”

“Would you like me to call Daniel? Or your mother, perhaps?” he prompted.

Another sniffle, another head shake. “No, I don’t want to talk to anyone.”

“Then please, please, tell me what’s wrong. Please let me fix it.”

Her lips trembled and he could hear her breath shake. “I just, I-I was just trying to take off my shirt and-and I couldn’t” she said, trying and failing to fight off the sobs. “I’m ti-tired of feeling like an invalid.”

And if there was a real knife, the stab to the guy couldn’t have felt worse. He did his best to hide his pained expression. This wasn’t about him. He did this to her. The least he could do was help her. He owed her that much and more.

He ghosted his hand over her hair in an attempt to soothe her and it just made her bawl more. He flinched thinking maybe he hit something, but he didn’t see anything.

“Detective, what did I do?” he asked frantically.

“Y-you won’t even t-touch me!” she cried. She turned her head the other direction and buried it in his shoulder, her heavy sobs soaking through his shirt in no time.

“I don’t want to hurt you! I’ve already hurt you so, so much. I don’t want to make it worse.”

She had no reply for that, and he just let her cry and cry into his shirt. His shirt that he is four days into. It’s wrinkled and dirty and it’s stiff to the touch, but not in a crisp way. And now there’s tears and snot trailing from his collarbone down to the middle of his chest. He cringes internally but he makes sure she has no idea what he’s thinking.

When her cries quiet and her breathing is less ragged, he lays her back down on the cot. She avoids his eyes and he let the silence linger a little before asking “now that you’ve unwound a little, would you like me to continue with your bath or no?”

She nodded minutely and he stood before turning back around to face her. Dropping his voice into the lowest register he could, he spoke in his most sensual voice. “And please, detective, allow me to undress you from now on.” Though he had no interest in sleeping with her, he watched as her pupils dilated and her nipples hardened. He turned and took the previously discarded bucket to the sink and filled it with warm water. When he returned from the en-suite, he had found that she had stayed put and hadn’t attempted anymore wardrobe gymnastics.

He dropped the sponge into the water and squirted some soap in as well, mixing until it’s become quite sudsy. He placed the bucket and the towels on the chair next to her cot, so they were within easy reach. Then he drew the curtain, just in case the closed door didn’t hinder any potential company even though it was past visiting hours. He picked the sponge out of the bucket and wrung the excess water out before slowly taking it to her skin. He started around her collarbones and took it down each of her arms, being careful to avoid the lines and wires. Then he cleaned over her chest. He looked up at her face and her eyes were closed and she made gentle, subconscious sounds of content. When he looked back down at her, it would be impossible for him to not get hard looking at her if it wasn’t for the giant ugly bruise on her hip. It’s greener around the outside now, but the center burned bright with its purple and red and blue hues. He was unintentionally playing a not fun game of tug-of-war with himself. He dips the sponge to gather soap and cleans around her breasts and finds himself hard and wanting, and then trails the sponge down her toned torso and finds evidence of his neglect, which drains him like a cold shower.

He sits her up, gently, to rinse her back and he’s grateful for the reprieve of tantalizing sights. Not that she’s any less gorgeous from the back, and the view of the dimples just above where her pant line sits has him swallowing around a lump in his throat. But at least it’s not quite as in your face as her amazing assets.

When she’s washed and dried from her neck down to her hips, he’s struck with uncertainty. She notices his lack of movement and asks “why’d you stop? That felt good.”

“I’m just uncertain how you’d like me to proceed with the sight of your injury. I think it may be best if you wash it, seeing as how you know the areas to avoid and such.”

She hummed a negative sound and peeks open one brilliant green eye at him. “Just, be gentle. I’ll let you know if it’s too much.”

His chest feels too small when he lowers her down flat on her cot and he approaches her hip where an angry purple eye flare at him. He dips the sponge in the warm water and wrings it out again. He notes the temperature of the water is cooling and so he plans to refill the bucket after this wash.

He hesitantly places the sponge outside sharpie outline a couple of inches. True to Maddie’s words that first night, the bruise has grown past the black marker boundary a little but has remained relatively the same size. He places the sponge so that it’s just touching her skin and make a tentative stripe with it.

“A little harder, but just a little bit. Then you can lighten up when you get closer to the middle where it’s the worst” she coaches him.

He follows her instructions so that when he pressed down, there was a gentle curve in her skin and then just brushing over the skin at the middle. After some of the sweat and grime was gone, the small scabby scars of his fingernail impression were visible again and he choked on his own air.

He finished up quickly and took the now cold water to the sink and emptied it, before filling it with warmer water and soap again. He returned with the buck and sat it at the table towards the end of her bed. The next part was going to be difficult seeing as it’s only him, but he reached up and fingered the drawstring of her sweats.

Clearing his throat, he asked “May I?” before he continued.

She gawked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Um, of course. Lucifer, it’s fine. Seriously.”

He didn’t respond. He just went ahead and undid the drawstring on her pants and gently lifted her butt to let them slide down to the top of the cage. He lifted the top of the sweats down to the bottom of the cage, but the bottom remained stuck on the unyielding metal. With the gentlest hand The Devil has even used, he lifted the cage straight up about a half inch. Just enough to allow the sweats to slide underneath. Then it was a simple procedure of bunching them at her ankles and grabbing the sponge and getting to work. He started at her feet and worked his way up her legs. He worked diligently, but with a featherweight touch. When he made it to her knees, he carried on up the left leg but deserted the right leg for now. Then when he was done with the left leg, he grabbed another sudsy sponge full of warm water and began cleaning the best he could around the cage. Tomorrow she would be receiving the cast, so they’ll clean it better then, but he could at least get some of the post surgery gunk off. He had noticed that her breathing got a little heavier, but he had assumed that was from some minor pain that she was trying to not alert him to or maybe she was falling to sleep. He was not expecting the smell of arousal to reach his nose when he reached the apex of her legs. He glanced and sure enough, there was a small wet mark marring the otherwise cleanliness of her panties and all the sudden, that arousal of his from earlier came slamming back into so hard and fast that his head starting swimming. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths through his nose trying to will away his erection, but when he opened them again and saw the metal cage surrounding her bruised flesh, his erection ran away as fast and hard as it came in.

He heard her mutter something under her breath but with his eardrums pounding, he was unable to make out what it was. “I’m sorry, can you repeat that, detective.”

Her face turned the same crimson as his shirt, and she muttered out “sorry.”

He shakes himself out of it. She clearly saw his reaction and was now self-conscious. That won’t do. “As I said before, Darling. You owe me no apologies ever. Especially for something as simple as a bodily response. But, would you be more comfortable washing this part of you yourself?”

She nodded and he wordlessly handed her the sponge after dipping it in some more hot water. He turned his back to her to give her privacy and he heard her scoot her underwear down enough to get to all the bits. After a couple of seconds, he heard her calling his name. Without turning around, he responded.

“Yes?”

“I’m…um, I’m…bleeding” she muttered.

His brows furrowed but he resisted the urge to turn around. “What do you mean ‘bleeding’? As in, I should fetch you a tampon or I need to grab a nurse?” he asked.

“That’s the thing. I’m not sure where it’s coming from and I can’t bend to see. I think I need a nurse either way because there’s no way I’m gonna be able to insert a tampon if it’s that and if it’s the catheter, well that’s out of my pay range.”

He nodded and left the curtained area and opened the door to walk to the nurse’s station. He just happened to run into Maddie there. There must’ve been something written on his face because she walked up to him when she saw him approaching.

“What’s wrong? Does Chloe need something?” she asked worriedly.

“I believe so. She has a question that is a little outside of my gender and occupation.”

Maddie laughs and follows Lucifer back to the hospital room. Lucifer stays behind as Maddie enters the curtain, but it really does nothing to dim the conversation.

“What’s the problem, Ms Decker?” Maddie asks.

“Well, I was getting a bath and when I cleaned down there,” Lucifer can hear the awkwardness that creeps into her voice, “I saw some blood, but I can’t really tell where it’s coming from.”

Maddie make a sound of understanding and then it’s quiet for a minute. There’s a random “does this hurt?” and a quiet “no” from Chloe. Then it’s quiet again. Finally, Lucifer hears Maddie explain “it just looks like some spotting. Do you normally spot before your period?”

“No, no I had my period two weeks ago. I shouldn’t have my next one for another two weeks or so” Chloe counters.

The nurse hums some inquisitive sound and asks, “are you on any type of birth control?”

“The pill, yeah.”

“You take it every day?”

“Well, maybe not every single day but most days” Chloe answered quietly, and Lucifer should’ve had to strain to hear it was it not for his preternatural hearing.

Maddie followed suit and replied in the same hushed tone. “Is there any chance of pregnancy?”

Chloe’s hesitancy has his heart pounding against his rib cages. She can’t be pregnant. At least, not with his child. Her whispered answer is beyond quiet and into mousey soft. “Maybe? But he says he’s infertile and that would’ve happened just a week ago.”

Maddie reply of “is there anyone else maybe?” has his fingernails biting painfully into his palm.

But for this question, Chloe’s response was quick. And not nearly as quiet as the rest of the exchange. “No. There’s no one else.”

“Then it’s either some spotting from early implantation of the blastocyst or some random spotting from your absences of your birth control.”

Chloe heaved a heavy sigh. “Yeah, that’s probably it.”

Maddie grabbed ahold of the curtain and alerted Chloe that she’d be back with some pads before pulling it open and closing it again behind her. She looked at Lucifer like she was in on some secret and told him not to worry, it’s just some menstrual spotting. He nodded dumbly and asked Chloe if he could enter her sectioned off room.

At her approval, he waltzed in and closed the curtain once again.

“So how much of that did you hear?” she asked.

“All of it. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop.”

“No, I know. You can’t turn off hearing. It’s okay. You heard her. It’s just some spotting because I’m totally terrible at remembering the pill.”

He read her face before he quietly added, “you do know it can’t be a baby. Like I said. We’re genetically incompatible. It’s physiologically impossible.”

She nodded, but he could see the disappointment flash through her eyes. “I know, but what about Charlie?”

Lucifer sighed as he took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “Charlie was a fluke. Amenadiel fell. He fell to be human. When I fell, I fell to, well, my past place of residence. Then Amenadiel and Linda slept together while he was human. He just happened to regain his powers afterwords. A set of freak events happening just right.”

“What about me making you mortal?” she asked.

He could tell she was searching for a way in which her hopes could be the truth. She wants Trixie to have a sibling. She wants to have another baby. Unfortunately, she chose someone that was incapable of giving her that. “You make me mortal, yes, but you don’t make me human. I’m sorry, Chloe. I know how badly you want this, but it just isn’t feasible. Just think back a couple days ago. My mortality issue is what caused this whole situation, but still I had my wings and my strength. It’s not the same.”

She nodded and his heart broke watching hers break into a million pieces. He’s never wanted kids, but he finds himself wanting whatever it is she wants.

With a knock on the door, Maddie comes in and through the curtain with a handful of colorful pads.

“Would you like me to put on one for you?” the nurse asked as she sat the pads on the table with the rest of Chloe’s things.

Chloe’s “yes, please” has Lucifer heading to leave the curtain, but he finds himself being stopped with a hand to his wrist. He turns around and sees Maddie holding him back.

“She’s not gonna be able to do this easily and as far as I’m aware, you’re gonna be her primary care giver as of tomorrow evening, am I right?” Maddie questions.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then you need to know how to take care of her. Pads are easy. When her menstrual cycle picks up in a couple of weeks, then she can walk you through whatever her preferred sanitary object is. But this is happening now, so I’m going to show you how to help her.”

“Of course, yes.”

Lucifer watches as Maddie opens the small package and unfold the pad. Then she peels the pad and places it on the underwear and wraps the wings underneath to hold it in place. He must admit, it’s an ingenious idea. Then with Chloe and Lucifer’s help, Maddie slides the underwear into place and rights her pants over her cage and hips again. Before leaving, Maddie asks “Is there anything else you need?”

Chloe shakes her head and Maddie is gone like she was never there. Lucifer busies himself with cleaning out the sponge bath equipment. When he returns to her cot, she is sound asleep and snoring. Rather than disturb her, he leans back in the stiff back chair and plops his head against the wall.

* * *

When he wakes up the following morning, the sun is already shining steadily through the blinds. He blinks the sleep away and turns to find Chloe, but instead he finds her gone. Her bed is still there, so it’s not imaging. Her personal belongings are still there. She is unable to walk, so he’s unsure of where she could’ve gone to. His vision narrows as his heart races and his lungs can’t seem to fill with enough air. Panic attack. Dr. Martin said they’re called panic attacks. He makes a conscious effort to close his eyes and take deep breaths through his mouth. It doesn’t seem to be helping. He feels like he’s drowning, like he’s clawing at sand that’s crumbling under his fingernails. He pushes his feet hard against the ground and his fingers wrap around the wood armrests of the chair. It’s just a panic attack. Just a panic attack. The sound of a door creaking open has his eyes opening and he has to concentrate on what’s he’s seeing because everything is a little fuzzy, but eventually he sees it. Chloe is in a wheelchair being pushed by Maddie. She has a long white cast going up the length of her right leg and peeking out from under her shirt shows that she has a white cast around her hips as well. She’s sitting in the wheelchair with her right leg straight out in front of her, which looks rather uncomfortable.

She was smiling upon entering the room, but she must have caught a glimpse of his wild face in the light of his panic attack and she was wheeling over to him with a speed he didn’t know she possessed. It took some maneuvering to avoid hitting him with her leg, but she accomplished, and she wasted no time in running her hand through his hair and placing the other one on his heart.

“It’s okay. I’m okay. I’m right here” she whispered this mantra to him before in his previous attacks.

His breathing settled and he noticed the spectator in the room and composed himself. “Yes, thank you. I’m alright. I see you got rid of your box! Excellent news!”

Chloe perked up again. She looked down at herself. “Yeah! The cage came off, the stitches came out, and the swelling was gone, so I get this humongous thing. And, they didn’t even have to do one of those crazy contraption casts — the, the Spica thing — because the orthopedic surgeon is trying out this new thing. This way I’ll be able to sit down and lay down; not just one or the other.”

Lucifer felt her contagious happiness and was smiling along side her.

Maddie interrupted their little moment when she spoke out. “Gah, you two are so adorable. But I do have one more thing to show you,” she pointed at Lucifer, “before I can let you check out.”

Lucifer stood up and walked behind Chloe’s wheelchair to steer her to where Maddie was standing next to Chloe’s cot.

“Right,” Maddie started, “so Chloe’s orders are to be bedridden for two weeks only allowed to move for essentials, then slightly mobile with a wheelchair for two weeks, then slightly mobile with a walker for one month, then slightly mobile with crutches for four months. Obviously, this plan is scheduled to change as we monitor her progress with home therapy and check ups, but as it stands, that’s two weeks of her unable to stand on her legs. If you’re going to be her primary caretaker, then you need to know how to transfer her. Think bedroom, bathroom, living room. You need to be able to put her in the chair and take her out.”

“I understand.”

Chloe looked at him thoughtfully. “Do you? Because you’re going to have to touch me to lift me.”

“I understand” he repeated.

“Also,” Chloe said, “I’m not sure how this is gonna work between the two houses. I don’t know if you want to stay a while at my house, maybe the first two weeks? If not, I’m sure Maze will help— “

“I actually have that part already in motion. Maze has moved all of your essentials into my penthouse. Two of the guest rooms have been set up. A seat in the shower. The works.”

“Two guest rooms?” she asked.

“Well, I didn’t want to presume you’d want to sleep with me, especially considering that’s where all this started. And you’re on a long road to recovery. I assumed you were going to want Beatrice to be near.”

Chloe wanted nothing more than to hug the Devil, but she was unable to do anything but make granny hand motions and hope he’d comply. So that’s what she did. And it took a solid thirty seconds of grabby hands before he bent his tall frame down and gently place his hand on her arm. It was the closest she was gonna get to a hug and so she went for it anyways. The little grunt he made as she squeezed was satisfying.

After their minor show of PDA, Maddie got them back on track and demonstrated some different transfer techniques, but in the end, the one that was the easiest for Lucifer and least painful for Chloe was just a simple lift and turn. Then she demonstrated how to attach the two pieces of the cast together while Chloe was laying flat and then that was that. Lucifer was wheeling Chloe to check-out and Dan pulled up in Lucifer’s new Chevy Suburban. Until the cast on her leg was removed, she would be unable to bend her leg and therefore she would need to sit sideways in a car. So, Lucifer bought the biggest car he could find.

Lucifer loaded Chloe in the car in the middle seat while Trixie was bouncing anxiously in the back row. The entire way to Lux, Trixie babbled and babbled to her semi unconscious mother. Dan pulled into the parking level at Lux and him and Trixie unloaded the wheelchair while Lucifer unloaded an entirely unconscious detective into said wheelchair. They ended up buckling her in because she kept sliding forward, but they eventually worked their way to the elevator and up to the penthouse.

Trixie and Dan weren’t often invited up to the penthouse, so they shared a look of joy when the elevators opened. Lucifer allowed them to explore while he pushed the wheelchair to the guest room he had set up for Chloe. The room was modest, but it was entirely accessible for her. He unbuckled her and gingerly picked her up, laying her down on the bed. He went about fastening the two pieces of the cast together and covering her up with the quilt laying on the bed. Satisfied with his work, he went out to see what the douche and his daughter got up to.

He walked down the small hallway to where he had set up the child’s bedroom and sure enough, he found her in there playing with all the most expensive toys he could find. When she saw him, she flew up from the ground and tackled his legs in a hug. He shooed her off and she returned to playing with her toys. He found Dan on the balcony looking over the city. He walked up to him with two glasses of whiskey neat in an unprecedented show of kindness. Although shocked, Dan accepted the drink and took a sip.

“Damn, the good stuff, huh.”

“Daniel, it’s all ‘the good stuff’ with me. Anyways, I was wondering if you were staying for a while. I’d like to get a shower.” Lucifer grimaces as he looked down at himself. He was…disgusting.

Dan nodded and Lucifer made quick work of a shower, foregoing his usual preening. Both human and angel. His wings were in a disrepair like never before. But, alas, there were two people in the apartment unaware of the Devil among them. He washed off and washed his hair. Then he blew it dry and shaved his now beard back down to his favored scruff. He left out his product and straightening his hair. His curls would just have to do.

He walked out of his shower to his bedroom. Naked. As he always does. He heard a small giggle followed by a disgusted groan and looked into the living room to see Trixie peeking out behind Dan’s leg.

“If Trix is gonna be staying here a while, you can’t be walking around naked, dude. C’mon.” Dan groaned.

Lucifer dropped his hands to cover the important bits and nodded before walking into his closet. He put shorts and a t-shirt on before walking back out into the living room. Dan chuckled and when Lucifer asked what was funny, all he had to say was “it’s a new look. Between the shorts and the fro, you look like a beach bum.”

Lucifer shrugged it off figuring fashion advice coming from someone who dressed like a bully in eighth grade was unwarranted. He walks into Chloe’s room after a light knock on her door and finds her awake and softly crying. He closes the door behind him as he makes his way to the bed. As he goes to sit on it, he sees what the problem is. It seems there’s a bit of an adjustment period between having a catheter and having to make your way to the toilet yourself.

He brushed a reassuring hand over her forehead and smooths back her hair. He leans down and kisses her forehead before he walks over to the closet and picks out another pair of sweatpants and underwear and a new shirt as well. He helps her shimmy out of her clothes before he takes a wet washcloth and wipes her clean. She cries silently the entire time he cares for her, but he can only imagine what it’s like to have so much of your independence stripped from you. He puts a new pad on a new pair of underwear and slips them on over her cast, followed by her sweatpants. Finally, he tugs at the hem of her shirt, silently asking if she wants it removed. She lifts her arms as an answer, and he pulls it off of her. He can’t help but notice her nipples are chafed after so long without a bra and just an old shirt.

He’s uncharacteristically hesitant when he asks “is there something I can get you for…your…” He gestures at her nipples and she asks if he has any Vaseline. He returns from his bathroom with a small jar and he lets her apply it before he slides her new shirt on. He transfers her over to the wheelchair after unlocking the two casts. He calls the maid that lives a couple flights down to come up and change her sheets.

When he wheels her out to the living room, Trixie makes a very real threat out of jumping onto her mother. Luckily, Dan grabs her in time to stop her.

Lucifer lets Dan transfer Chloe over to the couch and lets Trixie scribble on the ankle/foot part of her white cast with some markers.

Lucifer called out from the kitchen. “What do you want for dinner, love?”

Chloe looked over at him before responding, “I’m really craving some chicken. Some wings maybe?”

At her mention of wings, Lucifer found himself shrugging awkwardly as if there’s a hair on his back he’s trying to rid himself of. Chloe looked at him strangely and mouthed “what’s wrong?” to him.

He just shook his head in a noncommittal way and called up the best restaurant with chicken wings he knew.

* * *

Later that night, after the food had been delivered and eaten and Dan decided he would stay the night on the couch, Lucifer helped Chloe get ready for bed. It was mostly just brushing her teeth and him helping her finally wash her hair after a week of going without.

When he went to transfer her into bed, she held on to his shoulders a little tighter when he went to put her down.

“What’s wrong?” Lucifer looked into her eyes.

“Nothing with me. I’m okay. Truly. You’ve been so great. But what’s wrong with you? You haven’t been eating. You’re sleeping is screwed up; some nights you don’t sleep at all and some nights you’re practically comatose. And don’t think I’m ignoring whatever is wrong with your wings. You’re not taking care of yourself, Lucifer.”

He sighed and placed her down on her freshly made bed and he sat next to her. “I’m not the one who got snapped in half by the Devil, Detective. I don’t need to take of myself. I need to take care of you.”

Chloe ran her fingers through his thick curls. “And I need you to take care of yourself. Or else all this, this therapy and surgeries. It’ll be for nothing. Because I’m going to be too stressed worrying about you to focus on me.”

Lucifer rotates his body to look at her more fully. No makeup, no special clothes, her hair’s not done up any special way, and yet she’s still the most beautiful woman in the world. Or any world. “I am eating. I’m not eating much, but I’m eating. I can’t find it in myself to eat food that you could use.” He brushes his finger against the bottom of her rib cage that is slightly more noticeable since her bed rest started a week ago. “If I sleep and I fall too fast asleep, I’m afraid I’ll miss it if you need something. As for my wings, well you are correct in saying something is wrong, but it’s nothing for you to worry about.”

She twirls a curl around her finger. “You have more money than anyone I have ever known. You won’t run out of food. I’m not that ravenous. And I don’t need you at my total beck and call. I’ll get better. I promise. Finally, you don’t get to tell me what to or not to worry about. What’s up with your wings?”

His eyes close in content. “Do you know what preening is?” he asks.

Her eyebrows furrow for a minute, but she responds. “Um, yeah. It’s what birds do to clean their feathers, right?”

“Birds. Angels. Same thing. It’s just, I should ideally preen my wings once every other day. I usually do it maybe twice a week. But it’s been almost ten days since I’ve preened my wings and they’ve become, quite painful.”

Her quiet little intake of air when she realizes what he’s saying hurts him. He didn’t want to make her feel bad. He hurt her, for Dad’s sake.

Chloe bits her lip as though she’s debating saying something. Lucifer makes the spill it out motion with his hand.

“Do you think, can I preen them for you?”

His breath catches. To preen someone else’s wings is a bond like no other. It’s further than marriage. That’s a commitment she has no idea that she’s asking for.

Chloe takes his inhalation as offsetting and she rushes to apologize, but he cuts her off. “Don’t apologize. Just, um. I feel like you should know what you’re offering to do. It’s not a pretty thing. There’s oil and feathers. But, it’s not just the physical thing. To preen someone else’s wings is a bit like, well, there’s no good comparison. It’s like if the commitment of marriage and sex were one emotion.”

She nods slowly at him. “Okay. I understand if you don’t want me to, but I’m still willing if you are.”

Lucifer couldn’t believe his eyes. He abused this woman. He hurt her. And here she was, crippled, and offering to preen him. His voice caught in a lump in his throat, so he simply nodded.

Chloe’s smile lit up the darkening room. “Awesome. So when can we start?”

A small voice that Lucifer wouldn’t ever recognize as his own whimpered out “now?”

She nodded and he found himself taking off his shirt and she wasted no time running her hands down his back, in between his shoulder blades. He carefully unfurled his wings as there’s only enough room to fully extend one at a time.

“Beautiful,” she whispered.

His face was warm with her praise and he quickly explained how this worked. There’s an oil gland on each wing. Rub your hand over the gland and then wax it onto the feathers. Then straighten them and remove any that are damaged.

Chloe wasted no time getting to work and the emotions bubbling up from his chest were hard to control. Her hands felt miraculous on his neglected feathers and he found himself straining against his shorts in no time. Thankfully his back was to her so she wasn’t any the wiser.

As she moved down his wings into the longer, bigger feathers, there was no denying he was turned on. When she finished with that wing, he choked out “I need a break” and took purposeful strides towards her door and opened and shut it before she could finish her question. He headed down his hallway to his bedroom and walked straight into his en-suite. When the door was locked and his back was pressed up against it, he yanked his shorts down to his mid-thigh and fisted his cock. He was on the verge for so long that he only needed a six or so vigorous pumps until he was coming all over himself. His seed left a trail from his navel to the swell of his pecs. It dripped down over his hand and his cock. He cleaned himself off and felt disgusted. He shouldn’t be experiencing pleasure while she’s down the hall in what could be the worst pain of her life because of him.

He never truly felt like more of a monster than when he did when he was tucking himself back into his shorts and walking back to her room.

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Was I doing something wrong?”

“N— “his voice came out squeaky and so he cleared his throat, “no. No, that was fantastic. I just…had to take care of something.”

She wouldn’t have been a good detective if she didn’t take his actions and his appearance and put two and two together. She blushed but she looked excited more than shy. He suddenly dropped eye contact and found a really interesting spot on the hardwood.

“I’m sorry,” Lucifer apologized. “I knew what preening— and yet I still let you. I’m truly a monster.”

“You’re not a monster for having a bodily reaction. Did you tell me that just yesterday?”

“Well, yes, but— “

“No, no buts. It’s fine. What are you going to need to understand I like watching you fall apart?”

“How can you say that,” he said. “You’re here crippled because of me and I was off wanking next door.”

She waved him off and motioned for him to turn back around. He followed the directions and unfurled his opposite wing. She began preening this wing and sure enough, a flag started to raise. He groaned maybe a bit too audibly because out of nowhere she started sucking on the juncture of his neck and shoulders while she pressed down hard on his oil gland and all of the sudden, his hips were bucking wildly and he was coming in his pants. His legs crumbled beneath him and he fell in an undignified heap. The sound must’ve been pretty loud because next thing he knew, Dan was bursting through the door with a worried face only to see the Devil on the ground with his wings spread and a large wet spot forming on the front of his shorts. It was almost comical to watch the two expressions flicker back and forth on Dan’s face. The realization that Lucifer was exactly who he said he was and the realization that the Devil had just came in his pants like a goddamned youth.

Neither man recovered for several long minutes. Shockingly enough, Dan was first.

“Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait! So he’s like, The Devil Devil? For real? And so that means he’s an Angel. Wait, you’re sleepin— wait. He really did make those bruises. He broke your leg and your pelvis. The Devil is a cop?” Dan’s endless rant came to a screeching halt when Lucifer made a pitiful noise on the ground. “Wait, is he okay? I mean, what happened?”

Chloe blinked at Dan who was taking it remarkably well. “He— are you okay?”

Dan shrugged with eyes mouth still wide open but seemed to be otherwise unaffected. “I thought I was coming in here to find you on the floor. This is better than finding you hurt.”

And while Chloe’s heart soars a little hearing that, she felt the need to clear some things up right away, so he doesn’t go down the path she did. “Yes, he’s The Devil. And yes, that makes him an angel too. A fallen angel, but an angel, nonetheless. Yes, I’m dating Lucifer, who is The Devil. But as for the sleeping part, I’m not sure if we’ve really done that. And that’s how the injuries happened, yes, but that was a totally unintentional freak event. I make him mortal and so he was essentially feeling like he was losing his virginity, I think? I’m not totally sure. But he’s still stupid strong even when he’s mortal and so when he got foggy brain…” she shrugged, letting him fill the the rest. “As for what happened, I was preening his wings for him which is essentially the closest he can get to a religious experience. I found out it affects him a little more than I thought. I pressed a button and poor guy couldn’t make it to the bathroom this time.” Chloe chuckled. Dan stared. Lucifer whimpers.

“Okay, okay. But like, is he okay?” Dan asks.

Another shrug from Chloe.

A couple minutes later, Lucifer blinks and his eyes clear and you could tell he was lucid again. When he saw Daniel standing there, he cursed and quickly rolled his wings back into shoulders. He looked up accusingly at Chloe. “That, minx, was not fair. Everyone knows you don’t play while you preen.”

She giggled and the sound was so pure that he found himself copying it.

And Dan was standing there watching the Devil giggle.

Eventually the laughter quieted down, and Lucifer turned to Daniel. “So, planning on smiting me? Killing me with brimstone and fire? Maybe a good old-fashioned bullet to the head.”

Dan shook his head. “No way, man. I mean, I don’t like you but I ain’t gonna kill you.”

Lucifer looked at Dan with contemplation for a moment before standing up and looking down at his shorts and grimacing. Looking back up at Chloe he points to his unfinished wing and says, “so are you going to finish or should I ask Dan to help now.”

For a reason unbeknownst to her, she felt a deep loss at the thought of someone else preening his wings now. In an odd bout of possessiveness, she turns to grab at his shoulder to pull him closer, but the movement twinged her hip and she slammed her eyes shut tight and hissed.

Lucifer’s “I’ll finish it myself” haunted her as he ran out of her bedroom, leaving her with Dan.

Pointing his thumb over his shoulder, Dan says “what’s wrong with him?” to which Chloe responds, “he’s afraid he going to hurt me.” The pointed glance at her casts she elects to ignore.

* * *

The following morning, Lucifer wakes up ready to go. Between the preening and the orgasms, he felt like a new man. That is, until he walked into Chloe’s room and saw Dan in there holding a trash can under her heading and pulling her hair back as she aggressively empties her stomach. Lucifer rushes into the room but doesn’t know what to do. He grabs a water bottle from the mini fridge in the corner of the room and holds it out to her when her gagging subsides. She took a sip and then gargled with it and spit it out in the can. Then she took a sip to swallow and her face became tight as she swallowed, choking back the terrible taste of bile in her mouth.

“What happened?” Lucifer spat at Dan.

“Man, I don’t know. I just woke up too.”

Chloe looked horrible. Her skin was pasty and pale. Her skin was clammy and warm, but she was burying herself under blankets.

“Chloe, darling, listen to me.” He snapped his fingers towards her, but she didn’t respond. Desperate, he tried his desire schtick, and nothing happened. Chloe groaned and closed her eyes. “Okay, detective I’m going to need at least one word or else you’re going to the hospital.”

Chloe clenched her jaw and spoke through her teeth, but the word came out more like a grunt than English. “That’s right, Chlo. What’s wrong.” Dan prodded.

A high-pitched whine came from the back of Chloe’s voice and Lucifer’s hands were shaking. Chloe’s hands fisted at the top blanket and her knuckles were white with tension. Lucifer reaches over to the nightstand and grabbed a white bottle with pain pills in it. He dumped an oxycodone into his hand and Dan reached out to stop him.

“She’s not due for another couple of hours.”

Lucifer’s ire was no secret in his eyes. “I think she’s due now.” He took the pill and encouraged the detective to open her mouth and placed the pill on her tongue and pulled her head forward enough to put some water in her mouth. She closed her mouth and swallowed. At first, nothing changed. She was still squirming and letting small, petulant whines out. But after 20 minutes, Chloe fell back into a deep sleep.

Lucifer grew eerily silent as Dan watched him curl into himself. Soon, Lucifer’s voice filled the small bedroom and Dan wasn’t sure if Lucifer even knew Dan was there anymore. “It’s my fault. I hurt her. It’s my fault.”

The room grew quiet again as they both just settled on watching Chloe breathe. Eventually Lucifer spoke again, but this time is was directed at Dan. “The amount of pain she was in, when it happened. It was that but ten-fold. Hysterical pain. And that’s the pain under the surface. She wonders why I treat her like glass.”

Dan doesn’t know what to say to that and so he leaves them alone in the room together and sees about Trixie.

* * *

The next two weeks pass by without another instance. There were of course some missteps, but they made it through. By the time her two-week appointment was up, Chloe was nearly vibrating with excitement.

“I just want to be out of this chair. I’m not necessarily looking forward to being in a wheelchair and scooting around like I’m ancient, but I miss doing stuff.”

And although Lucifer would never admit it, he was glad the bedridden time was about to be over as well. He would gladly carry her to and from for the rest of her life, but when someone is confined to a space for a time like two weeks, that someone is bound to get a little worked up. And grumpy. So, he’s hoping that with some freedom, she’ll be a bit more…. accommodating. Which makes him feel terrible just for thinking about it considering how they wound up in this situation.

So, on their drive to the hospital, Lucifer is listening to all the things Chloe wants to do when she’s off bed rest. It’s a long list, but going to the precinct to get case files to work at from home and getting food from something that’s not a paper bag and eating it somewhere that’s not Lux.

When he pulls into the valet at the hospital and retrieves the wheelchair from the boot, Chloe already has herself unbuckled and spun around so she can help him lift her into the chair. He chuckled as he put her in the seat and dropped down to a knee to be her height. She smiled at him and it broke his heart a little seeing her this excited over something that should’ve never happened, but he relishes with her anyways. He cups the side of her face with his large hand and placed a chaste kiss on her lips.

Over the last two weeks, nothing sexual had happened after the preening fiasco. She regularly helps him preen now as they both enjoy the intimacy, but they’ve never done that specific thing again. Lucifer was no mathematics genius, but he could count. Right now, they’re on a 1 orgasm Chloe: 3 orgasms Lucifer ratio and that’s just poor partnership. He’ll correct it when he’s able, but sex is still off the table (due to both him and the doctors) and Chloe isn’t supposed to be engaging in any sexual activities until she’s cleared.

As he wheels her into the hospital to the ortho floor, he sits and talks about where she wants to go out to eat tonight. When her name gets called to go back, they were deciding between Mexican and Italian.

The intake nurse read her vitals — all looked good. When the nurse asked about her last menstrual cycle, Chloe explained that she should have her period now, but she doesn’t, but she also had some irregular spotting two weeks ago. The nurse asked if there was a chance of pregnancy because they’d be taking X-rays of her leg and hip today. Chloe risked a quick glance over at Lucifer and saw his sad grin and Chloe responded, “no, there’s no chance of pregnancy.” The intake nurse nodded and typed it in the computer. Then she wheeled Chloe off to get X-rays done and brought her back to her room to wait for the doctor.

When the doctor came in, he had a big smile on his face. “Ms. Decker! Hello! How have you been?”

She returned his smile and answered truthfully. “Honestly, other than being bored out of my mind and cooped up at home, I feel like I’ve been making a ton of progress.”

He replied with a hearty “good!” and proceeded to log onto the computer and display her x-rays. First were two of her hip. One was dated three weeks ago, and one was dated from today. The doctor, Dr. Roberts, took the time to outline what they were looking at.

“You’ll see here in the one from your admission in the emergency room, along the top of you left iliac crest, there was this fracture. Now this fracture was stable and was lined up well, so we didn’t need surgery for this one which is atypical for a pelvic fracture so that was good. But you see now from the x-ray today, the fracture is closing nicely and it looks like the timeline for that fracture will only be another month until you’re fully weight bearing on your left leg again. Your physical therapist has assured me that you’re keeping up with your exercises and that you’re extremely motivated to heal, which is always nice to hear.”

Chloe followed along intently but Lucifer can’t help but flinch as he sees the pictures fly by of the damage he’s done.

“So,” Dr. Roberts continued, “because of the abnormality of your injuries, it’s been difficult for us to project an accurate timeline of your recovery. Originally we felt six months was a modest goal, but we’re thinking closer to three months and a month of integration back into your normal life. Because of this, some other timelines have been moved up. But first, let’s talk about your femur.” Dr. Roberts slid down the screen until a side by side comparison came up of what looked like a broken chalk. “So, the one on your left here is from your admission into the ER. You don’t need to be a doctor to know that that’s broken. You had one of the worst comminuted femur fractures, frankly, I’ve ever seen. As far as bone splintering, your femur was nearly crushed. As you know, we had to put a rod and screws in to keep it intact. So, the bad news first is that you’ll likely suffer lifelong muscle damage to that leg. The good news is, you’ll be able to walk again. That includes running, jumping, swimming, and driving since it is your right leg. I think that those are bigger wins than losses but that’s just me. So, let me just go over some of these new timelines and then I’ll answer any questions you have. So, our next step was the wheelchair for a couple of weeks, but the physical and occupational therapist agree that they think that would be a waste of time for you. We’re going to get you fitted for a walking boot for over your cast and see if you can’t start on a walker today. Sound good?”

Chloe’s jaw dropped. “Yes! Yes, sounds good! Babe,” she turned to Lucifer, “you won’t have to carry me anymore!”

Dr. Roberts chuckled. “There are of course, limitations. Your therapists will go over them in more specifics, but for example, you should get a walker with a fold down seat so that you aren’t racing to find somewhere to sit and collapse. You shouldn’t be on your feet for more than fifteen minutes at a time or three hours in a day. For that reason, we recommend keeping the wheelchair handy. And use the walker to support you, not just to balance. You’re going to put most of your body weight on your walker, understand?” He waited for their nods before moving on. “This next item is usually something we talk about much later after a surgery like yours, but you, Chloe, were extraordinarily lucky that you had no damage done to any major arteries or veins. Because of that, we’ve been monitoring your blood pressure and it seems to be regulating fine as we would expect. So, “adult activities” are officially back on the table. I would stay away from anything too acrobatic, at risk of bumping something, but use your head and trust your gut. If something hurts, stop. I also want to point out that many— actually the nearly 75% of people — who suffer from pelvic fractures suffer from a decrease in libido and sometimes there’s pain with sex. Please speak with one of your doctors or therapists if that’s the case. This may sound daunting now, but keep in mind that just because I gave you the OK doesn’t mean that you have to go home and have sex. It simply means you can start testing the waters. So, what questions do you have for me?”

When Lucifer and Chloe left the hospital that day, Chloe had a new shiny plastic boot on her right foot, and they had a new walker for her. She did her practice with it and it wasn’t easy. Lucifer could see the pain in her eyes when she pushed down too hard on her leg, but she was stubborn and pushed through. But now that the excitement has worn off, Lucifer looks into the Rearview to see Chloe’s eyes wet. He sighed but called back to her “Detective, would you like some pain medication?”

She nodded but quickly added, “just Tylenol, not the oxy.”

Lucifer was confused at her choice, as it was time for her quarterly dose of oxycodone anyways. “Are you quite sure? It’s time.”

Chloe shakes her head and reiterates that she just wants Tylenol. He reaches into the center console of the Suburban and tosses the Tylenol back to her, followed shortly by a baby bottle of water. He hears her swallow them as he watches the road. He sees her tears fade and he allows himself to think about how the appointment affected him. She could walk (with major assistance but still). She’s closer to being all healthy again. But, she could have sex. There was that lump in his throat again.

She’s been unable to bathe herself the last three weeks and so he gives her a sponge bath and she preens him. It’s been a nice trade off. But the problem was, both of those things left him wanting and now there’s no excuse for him to say no to her anymore. But he couldn’t bare the thought of sleeping with her again. What if he makes it worse? He was stuck in limbo between wanting to fuck her until she only remembers his name and never wanting to give into that side ever again. Perhaps he can just play the middle ground? Maybe he’ll help her with her desires and deny himself. He’s not dangerous if he’s not on the precipice peering into the abyss that is his orgasm. That’s it. That’s what he’ll do.

When they park at Lux, Chloe is insistent that she can walk from the car to the elevator. It’s roughly twenty yards and it’s four times as long as the farthest she’s walked so far. He explains he thinks it’s a bad idea but she’s persistent. So, he helps her get out of the car and she stand behind the walker and together they walk. It’s a snail’s pace, but Lucifer never says a word. Roughly seven yards in and her arms are shaking. At ten yards, her brow is damp with sweat. At twelve yards, she collapses. Luckily, Lucifer was right beside her and caught her as her knees buckled. He eased her into a cradled carry, and he picked up the walker with the other hand. He raced through the remaining eight yards and called for the elevator. Her breathing was rapid, but he wasn’t worried as he stepped into the elevator. As it sped to the top floor, Chloe mumbled something into his chest, but he didn’t ask her to repeat and she didn’t ask for any follow up, so he chalked it off.

When they made it into the Penthouse, they were alone. Dan was at work and Trixie at school. So, when Lucifer asked Chloe where she wanted to be put down and she responded “bed”, his hands started to sweat. He wasn’t ready. Not so soon.

He puts her in bed, and she pulls him down next to her, he finds himself scrambling out of her bed and his heart beating wildly against his chest. She gave him a funny look and pat against the bed twice. His vision was narrowing again until he heard her voice. “Not horny, just tired. Cuddle.”

Lucifer breathed out a breath that was taking his chest hostage. He laid back down next to her and let her crawl up against him the best she could while he reached down and latched the cast together. With her head buried up against his chest with his arm wrapped around her, that’s where they fell asleep for the night.

* * *

The next two weeks go by and Chloe hasn’t accosted him once for sex. He hates to admit how relieved he feels. He wants to want her, but he just can’t unsee her in hysterics beneath him.

Her physical and occupational therapists swear that she’s making fantastic strides, but he swears she seems sicker than she was before. She’s wearing out faster he swears she seems sicker than she was before. She’s wearing out faster and she seems to be sleeping more and more. She’s constantly hungry, but she can’t seem to keep any food down. A call to the hospital assures him that this is a part of the process. She was making such big strides that it was sure to plateau eventually. But he just doesn’t think that that’s it. Perhaps she caught the flu or an infection?

Another week passes and still no sex offers. He’s vaguely optimistic that maybe the pelvic fracture really did reduce her libido. It’s a terrible thing to wish for, but he supposed that that’s just self-preservation.

One more week goes by and nothing. She’s actually backsliding with her progress and now the hospital is concerned. She should’ve been at least at crutches now, but she can barely make it the five yards that she started with on the walker. She lives planted in front of the toilet, throwing up all the food she’s desperately hungry for all the time. And at her last bath, when he tried to clean her breasts, she forcefully flinched away from him and left out a painful hiss. When he asked, she simply told him that she’s been trying to get back on track with the birth control and it’s been screwing with her hormones.

One morning, he had enough when he was holding her hair back while she leaned awkwardly over the commode considering she can’t bend one leg.

“Darling, you’re not well. I’m taking you to the ER.”

As per usual, she immediately started fighting him. “I’m fine! I’m fine. I just caught a little bug. It’s fine.”

He groaned. “You’re not. Please, allow me to take you to get checked out.”

She locked eyes with him, and he saw there was no way she was changing her mind. He nodded.

“Is it the travel that bothers you? Can I call a physician in to check you out?” He offers. He’s beginning to worry that she’s on a downhill slide, and this downhill slide ends with death.

She shakes her head as another round of dry heaves takes over.

* * *

Another week passes and he still can’t convince her to see a doctor. Her symptoms worsen. She’s all but residing in the bathroom now, but the hell beast that’s taken residence inside of her is now forcing her odd foods out both ends. When she’s not in the bathroom, she’s on the couch splayed out with a heating pad resting low on her stomach. She cries in her sleep, but when she’s awake she pretends everything is okay.

* * *

It’s been eight weeks since she’s been out of the hospital and it’s to the point that Lucifer cries in his bedroom. This person is no longer the woman he fell in love with. She’s an empty shell of a person. Every week, her symptoms magnify. The cramping spread from her womb to her abdomen and her back. She is exhausted all the time, but she can’t sleep. He has the doctor’s home number on speed dial, but Dr. Roberts swears it must be a flu because none of her symptoms are to be expected with her injuries. The Doctor encourages him to get her to the hospital.

Dan and Trixie don’t seem to know their place. Trixie misses her mother and Dan hates to watch her deprecate like this. But when any of them voice their opinion, Chloe is merely just dragging herself away to the nearest corner.

* * *

Nine weeks and Chloe cancel her therapy. She claims she’s just not getting anything out of it.

Ten weeks and Lucifer is done playing games with her. He calls the nurse from the hospital when this all started, Maddie. When Maddie picks up the phone, it’s with a surprised voice.

“Mr. Morningstar? How can I help you?”

Lucifer’s voice cracks as he pleads. “Please, you have to help me. I think she’s dying.”

“Woah, woah, woah. What do you mean? This sounds like more of a 911 call.”

“No, no. She refuses to go to a hospital. She canceled her therapy. She stopped taking her pain pills. She’s not walking anymore. She’s sick, Maddie. I need your help.”

“I can’t see a patient that doesn’t want to be seen, Lucifer.”

“Then see a friend. I need to do something” he begs.

* * *

Maddie agrees to come over at the end of the week because she’s busy with shifts until the. But it’s been a long week. Lucifer has noticed how Chloe’s health is being impacted from an external point of view. She’s eating nonstop and not exercising, which has caused her clothes to fit a little tighter. (Or a lot tighter, but Lucifer wouldn’t never dare say that).

Her overall health is just diminishing. The cramps have spread to her legs and she can’t stand up without getting dizzy. Lucifer has started doing something he swore he never would do – he prayed. He begged for her life, even if it meant sacrificing his own. He asked for answers and forgiveness and whatever his bastard of a father needed to heal his loved one.

When Maddie comes over and sees the state of the penthouse, she’s hit with how real Lucifer feels this is. There’s no cleanliness anywhere. There’s dirty plates and clothes and kids toys all over. He hasn’t bothered calling the maid.

Maddie looks in and sees Chloe laying on the couch with heating pads on her stomach and back. There are odd arrangements of food scattered around her, and as Maddie is surveying the surroundings, he notices the sharp wince that Chloe gives off as she grasps her left hip. Maddie walks over and peers down at the blonde woman from over the back of the couch. Chloe looks up and meets her eyes. There’s a storm raging in them and then, out of nowhere, her ire leaves her and leaves the misty trails in its stead.

It takes Maddie one look at Chloe to know she’s pregnant.

Maddie takes a deep breath, thankful that Lucifer decided to give them the penthouse to themselves. Choosing to stay down in Lux while she’s here. “How long have you known?”

Chloe has the nerve to look guilty. “I think I’ve known since that day we were talking about it.”

Moving around the end of the couch, Maddie takes a seat on the armrest. “Chloe, why haven’t you told him? He deserves to know. He thinks you’re dying.”

“Every time a baby gets brought up, he makes it clear he doesn’t want one. He’s always says about how he can’t have kids but if that’s the truth, then I’m proof that immaculate conception is real.”

“You’ve still got to tell him. What are you waiting for? The baby to pop out and tell him itself?” Maddie chuckles.

Chloe’s lip trembles and Maddie takes the time to feel bad for the detective. She got hit hard with the pregnancy hormone stick. “I just don’t want to lose the baby. I want it.”

Maddie steps over to put a reassuring hand on Chloe’s arm. “Lucifer will not make you give up that baby. He can’t. But I’ve seen the way he looks at you, sweetie. He’s smitten.”

When the elevator doors ping open on Lux downstairs and Chloe sees Lucifer on his knees with his hands folding, she knows she’s taken it too far. She shakily takes a couple of steps before sitting down on her walker. She regains her breath and stands again taking a few more steps. As she’s about to sit down again, Thea a gentle hand on her back and she’s surprised to see Maze behind her with a concerned expression.

“Decker are you okay?” she asked before glancing over to where Lucifer was on his knees. “Yeah, he’s been doing that a lot.”

Chloe’s legs shook with exertion, but she was determined to make it over to Lucifer. He couldn’t have been more than twenty feet away. Twenty feet. She could do that much.

Maze seemed to sense her determination because she didn’t try to stop her. Instead, she just followed slowly behind with a steady hand at her back. Chloe’s entire focus was just on walking. She ignored her aching legs and breasts and the cramps and nausea that never seemed to do away. Just one step after another. When she was within ten feet of him, her footing fumbled, and she almost fell forward but she caught herself with her arms and Maze was there to help her steady herself again. Another couple steps and he must have heard the loud clicking of the walker against the heavy bass of the club music. He opened his eyes and dropped his hands. When he saw what was happening, his jaw dropped. He stood up quickly and went to close the distance between them, but Maze held up her hand to stop him from coming closer. He stood still, baffled with his fists clenching at his sides to resist the urge to reach out for her. The last five feet were slow moving, and her legs shook more with every step, but at least she didn’t feel like her leg was being shot with every step. When she finally reached him, she looked up at him and said “hello”.

He took that as a sign that he was okay to resume as normal and he bent down and kissed her with a passion that he hadn’t kissed with since the night that gave her the walker. He pulled her head as close to his as he could afford without suffocating her. When they parted for air, Lucifer realized that it was mostly Maze holding Chloe up at this point and he hurriedly reached down and dropped the seat on the walker, which Chloe took gratefully. While Chloe was catching her breath from her workout, Lucifer was trying to dislodge his heart from throat.

Finally, Chloe spoke up over the loud music of the club and asked, “Can we go upstairs? I want to talk to you.”

Lucifer nodded his agreement eagerly.

“Can you carry me? I think I’m a little worn out” she asked shyly.

Without second thought, Lucifer picked her up and he savored the fact that although he lifted her slightly rougher than he usually would, she made no sounds of pain.

He ignored all the glared of the club goers who came because they were crazy enough to think that he would sleep with them tonight.

Stepping into the elevator, he pressed the penthouse button. Chloe began her speech as soon as the elevator started going up. “I’m not dying” she started.

He glanced over at her before planting his eyes on the running numbers on top of the elevator doors. Her heart broke some more seeing his eyes sparkle with unshed tears.

“I’m not dying,” she repeated. “I’m sorry that you thought that I was. That I let you think that. I was just afraid.”

That really took him by surprised as his eyebrow furrowed. “What do you mean you were afraid? Afraid of what?”

She buried her face in his neck as she mumbled through the rest of her speech. “Afraid of upsetting you, mostly. I was afraid of disappointing you. I- I knew something that I knew you wouldn’t be very happy about. I was happy about it though. But I knew you wouldn’t be and so I kept it to myself. But then I forgot how shabby it made me feel. And then the rehab was moving so fast and Trixie needed a mother and you needed a partner and a lover. I got overwhelmed. I’m sorry.”

At the end of her speech, the doors opened to an empty penthouse. Maddie must’ve left. Lucifer sat her down on the bar, so they were face to face.

He looked her in the eyes and began his response. “I ask that you don’t interrupt me during this. You, Chloe Decker, could never disappoint me. Ever. And it’s a rare thing that you upset me, but that’s usually my fault anyways. If there’s something you want to share with me, I beg of you to please share it. Regardless of how you feel I’ll react to it. Especially if you’re not feeling well. I have been at my absolutely limits with my emotions. I am not an emotionally man. And you have pushed me to test every single emotion on the range. And darling, I can understand how the rehab would be frustrating, but there is no set time limit. If it was too much, ask them to slow down. Don’t just quit. Trixie may have needed her mother, but you were right here. She got to see you and sit with you and scribble on your cast. You don’t have to be super mom all the time. Daniel, as much as I hate to admit it, has really stepped up with her. And as for me? I just need you. No expectations. Just you. Do you mind if I reveal a secret of my own?”

Chloe pulled him into an embrace, and he felt her nod against his chest.

“See, so many weeks ago, when the doctor gave you the all clear for sex, I was petrified that you were going to want it. And then you didn’t want it and you didn’t want it and then my fears shifted. I was afraid that you didn’t want me anymore. I mean, I had maimed you. And then you started getting sicker and you started pulling away and I was positive that I had died, and I was in my own Hell loop.”

For a minute, they let the word sit between them. Eventually, Chloe pulled back and looked at his face, reading him. “So, what do you think about it now?”

“I think I’d be down to try but start small. See if maybe I can even the score. You’re behind by two orgasms. Two mind-numbing orgasms.”

Her face reddens, but she nods. Before they could have any fun, she needed to tell him what’s going with her. Sliding a hand along side his head, she appreciated how he’s grown over the last few weeks. He allowed casual touch again. She missed it. As she was playing with the hair at the base of his neck, she hummed. “What do you think about kids?”

“In general? Can’t stand the dirty, sticky little buggers. Why?”

She bit the inside of her lip to stop her from crying. “No, not in general. Specific. What would you think about our kids?”

He placed a hand on her good hip and thumbed at the spot where her pelvis pokes against her skin. Or, used to. She really had gained some weight the last couple of weeks. “I suppose that’s a hard question for me because as I’ve said. It’s quite impossible.”

She grabbed ahold of his hand. “What if I told you it wasn’t?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’m pregnant, Lucifer.”

His mouth gaped as he looked down at her abdomen. As his brain was clicking together dots, it all made sense. All except one thing. “Who’s the father?”

Chloe gasped and in anger she tried to get away from him, but she’s unable to jump down from the counter. Her eyes filled with tears. “I would never, never, accuse you of what you just accused me of.

“Detective, it’s not an accusation. I can’t father your children. And yet, you’re with child. It’s not possible.”

“And I’m here telling you it is. I haven’t seen a doctor yet because I was afraid you’d want me to terminate it. But we can go to the doctor tomorrow. It’ll be twelve weeks along. Twelve weeks.”

And then something else hit him. If it was in fact his, it would’ve had to been made during…that night. The night he’s trying so hard to forget. The night that everything went wrong. Of course, it’ll be his child. He wonders if that’s why it was so intense. Perhaps offspring is possible between soulmates.

Chloe watched as the gears turned in his head. And then without warning, he seemed to accept what she was saying. “You’ve been pregnant, with my child, for twelve weeks? How long is a human pregnancy?”

Chloe nodded. “40 weeks. It’s desperate into trimesters. I’m almost a third of the way done. If it makes you feel any better, the second trimester is much better usually. Different symptoms, but better.”

Lucifer listened with interest. “And what are these better, different symptoms?”

“The biggest one is usually an increase in libido. With my injury, I don’t know if that will be the same as Trixie’s pregnancy, but it was pretty intense.”

His eyebrows raised near to his hairline. “Oh really,” he purred. “Lucky me.”

She laughed. “You have to remember; I’ll be roughly the size of a whale. Not quite as sexy.”

“Nonsense,” he replies smoothly. “You could weigh 300 pounds and be sexy.”

She licked her lips and looked down at his. Glancing back up to his eyes, she said, “do you remember how you said you wanted to start small? Wanna start small?”

After waiting so long to receive an invitation, he wasted no time in laying her down along the bar top and sliding her shirt up past her breasts. When he reached up to grab one, Chloe stopped him with a shake of her head.

“Sore. Sorry.”

Lucifer wasn’t one to give up easily though and so when his eyes raked down over the expanse of her torso, they were drawn to the small bump on her stomach. His hands reached out to cup the small home of his child. His child. Wow. He laid a kiss down just below her navel. When he fingered at the waistband of her sweats, he looked up at her for permission. At her small nod, he slowly, carefully removed her pants. He had to remove the walking boot as well to get them all the way off, but it didn’t seem to kill the mood. He kissed his way back up her legs, skirting around the broken leg. Without warning, he cupped her through her underwear, and he could feel her arousal which gave him a burst of confidence. He paid no mind to the arousal below his belt.

Chloe’s head tipped back along the cool countertop. He stopped what he was doing which earned him a cold look from his girlfriend. He kissed below her injured hip as an apology. “Sorry to disturb your good time, but you will tell me if it’s too much, correct?”

She nodded her head vehemently and he got back to work. He pulled down the damp cotton panties down her legs. When they finally disconnected from their host, he threw them over his shoulder for them to land somewhere to be found later. And then his mouth was one her. He licked a long, flat stripe up her center and he’d never tasted anything as distinct and sweet and addicting as her cunny. He placed a hand flat on her stomach to hold her down as he used his tongue to explore her pussy. He eats her out like he was a man starving and she couldn’t find any purchase on the unyielding tabletop. He bends down until he’s kneeling before her and her legs are over his shoulders. When he feels the muscles clenching in her thighs by his face, he knows it’s time to switch it up and he goes straight for her clit. Chloe is making sounds like you’d hear in some overdone movie, but he’s loving every second of it. When pulls the hood of her clit back with his fingers and sucks on the clit, she’s gone. She’s bucking against his mouth and the words coming out of her mouth aren’t even English at this point. He’s trying to hold her down as to not rustle any of her injuries or the baby that he knows now is in her stomach. He blows gently against her clit as she’s coming back, trying to work her down. The hand that she had something threaded into his hair was pulling something mighty against his head, as if she couldn’t decide whether she wanted it to end or continue. When he can tell that she’s regained herself, he says “Chloe 2: Lucifer 3”.

Chloe’s eyes are dilated and she’s panting wildly. When she looks down at him, Lucifer makes a show of licking his lips. She groans.

“Are you quite satisfied, darling?” he asked.

“More. Please. More.”

“Oh ho! Quite the greedy lass, aren’t you?! Tell me, what’s is it you desire?” he purred.

“Fuck, Lucifer. Just make me cum again. I don’t care how.”

If this was how she was now, he can’t imagine what she’s like the the second trimester.

“Now now,” he clicked at her. “A good girl knows to be patient. Maybe I should teach you some manners.”

Chloe bent her left leg to try to push his head back in between her thighs but he didn’t budge. She groaned in frustration and she must be really worked up to be fighting like this.

He lifted her from off the bar top and carried her to his bedroom and sat her on his bed. “Is this okay” he asked.

She nodded and sighed as she sank down into the soft silk sheets. He gently rolled her, so she was face down on his bed and he got to look at her particularly amazing backside. “What about this, darling?”

She wiggled her butt as a response, and he takes it as his cue. He reaches at her lower back his his hands and begins to massage it. Her moan is entirely too loud for what he’s actually doing, and it has his erection straining. He works his way up her back and across her shoulders. Then he moves down to her legs and massages them until she’s putty in his hands. When he reaches in between her legs, he finds her center soaked. He’d love nothing more than to envelope himself in her tight heat, but none of that tonight. Tonight, is about her. And so, when he slides a finger in and he sees her relax further, he lets a smile grace his face. He slides the finger out, only to add a second one to her core. He can feel her walls stretching around him and the squishing sounds of his fingers thrusting in and out of her heat has his hips bucking against nothing in the same rhythm.

“Can you take another one?” he asks.

At the small tending of her lower back, he quickly glides his hands over it and massage it. “I’m not sure. We can try.”

He nods despite the fact that she can’t see him, and he withdraws his two fingers and adds a third.

She’s panting heavy now and the tight ring of muscle around her opening is protesting the intrusion. She’s rolling her hips back onto his fingers and he can feel the muscles inside her start to contract rhythmically. He points his fingers downwards to start stroking that special spot inside of her and her hips nearly buck him off of her, he knows he’s found it. In a similar fashion to how she tore him apart while she was preening him, he pushed all three fingers into her g-spot and pressed his thumb against her clit. And he got the exact reaction he was hoping for. She flops like a fish on the bed in front of him while panting heavily and releasing sporadic little moans. He released her from his prison, and he watched with utmost fascination as she continued to shudder and clench around nothing every couple of seconds. 

When she finally calmed down, he rolled her over and pressed a kiss to her collarbone. “Are you okay? Is anything hurting?”

“I’m perfect. Thank you.”

* * *

The honeymoon trimester was a treat indeed. But they rode it out together.

* * *

On June 6th, Chloe Decker and Lucifer Morningstar brought forth a pair of twins into the world. Lucan Frank Decker and Sullivan John Decker

**Author's Note:**

> So, if the ending seems rushed, that’s because it was. You know when you’re falling asleep while writing smut that you should probably stop. I’ll probably come back to this and edit it. General edits, separate into chapters, and add some content after the pregnancy reveal. Clean it up. But for now, please check out my main fic, Cover Me Up and leave a comment and kudos. If you let me know you read both, I’ll even write a special story of your choosing! *shameless bribery*

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [With His Strength](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24052312) by [WhatSaidWho](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatSaidWho/pseuds/WhatSaidWho)




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